Archdevil's Contractor
by nullmana
Summary: Picking up from the end of the first season of Isekai Quartet, Demiurge encourages Ainz to take the opportunity to strengthen Nazarick by recruiting from the other groups. They offer a position to Tanya, which comes with the requirement that she accept giving up her humanity and be turned into a demon.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Part 1

_Damn Being X. I've been in this nonsensical school-world for three weeks now, yet still none of it makes sense. Okay, it's definitely still better than having to spend every night in some muddy trench, but just when I finally managed to get reassigned to some proper desk-work doing research, that MAD scientist finds a way to get me back to __flying with a cursed computation orb in one hand and a defective experiment c__onsiderably less __stable than a hand grenade in the other._

I'm a Major! That is definitely not my job! Why is it that no matter how much I get promoted I can't get out of those ridiculous assignments? Not only that, but when the thing was about to explode and I tried to hit the emergency shutoff, I instead get brought to this silly world together together with some of my men who weren't even in the same city at the time? There's got to be a limit to this nonsense!

The small girl wearing a slightly baggy military uniform grumbling to herself while walking towards the school building was Major Tanya von Degurechaff, Commander of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. Though an outsider looking on might smile and think her to be playing pretend, in truth, both the silver medal on her chest, the rank insignia on her shoulders, as well as the experimental military-grade computation orb around her neck were entirely real, earned through her years of service.

Given that she was still not even 13 years old, those outsiders would probably say that the school bag she carried was a better fit for her than the rifle she was actually more used to carrying around. Despite this, the subordinates who had spent months and years flying together through every flavor of hell under her command would either laugh at such a joke, or worry about what the Major might say if she heard it herself.

In reality, she wouldn't mind hearing that sort of common sense, unfortunately lacking on her everyday battlefields. For all her first-hand experience as a aerial combat mage, she did not particularly like spending weeks on end under non-stop artillery fire. Despite her combat record practically being a battlefield legend which doubled as heroic propaganda, she herself saw it as a pointless waste of perfectly good human capital. Better than getting killed herself, certainly, but to her the colossal waste of munitions and human resources known as total war was a sin against reason and free-market economics.

Most who knew of her knew a living demon of the battlefield, the Devil of the Rhine. Though Imperial records might list her by her official nickname, "White Silver", even allies had come to instead call her "Rusted Silver". To both, she was a death god. She would rain destruction on her enemies together with her elite battalion, but anybody saved by her might yet drown in the waves of enemies who would then redouble their assault in an effort to get rid of her.

Contrary to this reputation, however, Tanya herself would much prefer the life of a military academy in the capital to days on the front lines. Peaceful days in this fantastical school, though unusual, should have been much more enjoyable than having to risk getting her head shot off by snipers in the desert.

Naturally, she understood the value of this peace, and even though her "classmates" included fantasy adventurers, a self-proclaimed Goddess, elves, demons, and an undead overlord, she had successfully established productive, working relationships with them. The undead Overlord, Ainz Ooal Gown, who looked able to wipe out humanity (and was probably capable of doing so) was actually in much the same situation as her, having wound up in an unfamiliar body in a different world, and two of the other humans were similarly from her own world in their past lives.

The four of them had been made to participate in some imitation of a sports festival against a mismatched group of 'teachers' and for some unknown reason an ancient robot superweapon known as the Mobile Fortress, Destroyer, which she was told had self-destructed. Together they had won and built relationships of real trust between them.

At least that was the plan…

_So what's with this situation all of a sudden!?_

Though she arrived in the classroom at the same time as always – usually before everybody else – she instinctively froze when met with a literal wave of murderous intent thick enough that it would be visible even to a human with no magic ability. Waiting for her in front of the door stood Ainz and his subordinate, the demon Demiurge, whom she had thought of as a good friend.

She glanced behind the two of them at the rest of Ainz's subordinates: Albedo being the source of the obvious bloodlust, as if preparing to kill her at a moment's notice. Shalltear not bothering to look at her. Cocytus appraising her with an unreadable expression. Aura smiling at her while Mare nervously alternated between looking at his sister, Ainz, and Tanya. Lastly, she looked back towards Demiurge with his usual confident smile and his arms folded in front of him, then to Ainz, who was leaking an incredibly ominous black aura with enough physical pressure for her to consider putting up a magic barrier in self-defense.

_What is with this gathering? No, any way you look at it they're threatening me, aren't they? What the hell? I thought we were getting along fine, that they were all rational people who could be relied on! What is with this atmosphere all of a sudden! Is this supposed to be some kind of court martial? What the hell did I do to them?!_

While doing her absolute best to not let her panic show, she unfroze herself and gave a stiff salute.

"Good Morning!" (Tanya)

_Polite greetings and formality never hurt! __I thought we had gotten closer than that, but as if I could casually call out to them in this kind of situation!_

"Umu. Demiurge. Give her _that_." (Ainz)

In response to her greeting, Ainz gave a brief order to the demon, who nodded and took a large envelope with a crimson seal from his suit, bearing the emblem of the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown.

"Understood, Ainz-sama. Tanya Von Degurechaff, I present to you this envelope, containing an offer for employment." (Demiurge)

_H__a__h__?_

* * *

Part 2

One hour earlier, when Ainz opened the door to the classroom and walked in, each of his subordinates immediately stood and bowed to him. As planned, they had gathered to exchange information between the Guardians. Although he arrived right on schedule, everybody else had evidently been waiting for a while, so as to not waste even a second of their master's time.

"Ainz-sama. The Floor Guardians are assembled before you to present our reports. As ordered, we have already prepared the full set of anti-espionage enchantments in this classroom described in Punitto Moe-sama's guide. Furthermore, the Pleiades have returned to our control, and have been deployed as lookouts around the building. For the next half-hour, we should be able to freely exchange information without risking interception." (Albedo)

"Good work, Albedo. To the rest of the Guardians, as well, thank you for gathering here on time. Please begin your reports, starting from Shalltear." (Ainz)

"As you wish. I have focused my examination on the two demon maids, Rem and Ram. The two of are primarily loyal to the teacher, Roswaal, though based on what I heard from them, he is only a teacher as a result of being in this world. Still, given that he is currently taking the role of a teacher, he is unlikely to attack." (Shalltear)

"They. Demonstrated. Impressive. Physical. Ability. Would. They. Be. A. Threat. If. They. Attacked?" (Cocytus)

"Impossible. Both their physical abilities and levels of magic could perhaps be considered able to harm the Pleiades, but not to kill them. There is no chance of them being a meaningful threat to us Guardians, let alone Ainz-sama." (Shalltear)

"Is that so? Then, what about the others in their group? The half-elf with a spirit companion, the human male, and the magician girl? Are any of them of concern?" (Albedo)

"Um, Betty-san is a really nice person… I don't think she would try attacking us…" (Mare)

"Mare, you were supposed to be reporting on their combat ability, not praising them!" (Aura)

"I'm sorry, onee-chan…" (Mare)

Mare interrupted to give his own impressions of the girl with whom he worked in the library, but was instead scolded by his sister, and was now looking apologetically at her.

"It's fine, Mare. Continue your explanation." (Ainz)

"Yes, Ainz-sama! We spend time together in the library, and doesn't seem interested in going out of her way to fight us. Her magic is pretty strong, stronger than the maids, but weaker than mine, I think? It's hard to say since she hasn't actually done any fighting…" (Mare)

"Yes, well done, Mare. Continue to get along with her." (Ainz)

Ainz placed his bony hand on Mare's head, who was now beaming from receiving his master's praise. In reality, the twins had lived the better part of a century, being in their 70's – far longer than Ainz himself. Regardless, they were the children his companions had created, and he treated them as if they were his own.

"Okay! If we're talking about threats, you'd think of that blue-haired girl, Aqua, the priest calling herself a goddess, right? She's a really rude person! Even though she's supposed to be taking care of the animals with me and Subaru, she never actually does her job. Not only that, but the one time she actually did show up, she started trying to dispel Ainz-sama's Death Knight. Seriously, talk about rude!" (Aura)

Aura jumped forward in front of Mare and Ainz, then gave her own report, full of insults towards the one who had previously tried attacking their master. Unsurprisingly, neither was particularly interested in getting along with the other.

"Not only did she suddenly attack us in the street, but the crazy bitch now turns on Ainz-sama's pets? Unforgivable!" (Shalltear)

"Well, honestly though, she's surprisingly reaallly weak. Even though you're useless against her, and that holy-element magic of hers could harm Ainz-sama a little, that's all she can do. If Ainz-sama were to use anti-holy equipment, or if we just had anybody except _you_ fight, she's a total pushover. Subaru's an ordinary human, and I think he's probably stronger… Even that boy in her own party beats her up, doesn't he?" (Aura)

"You-" (Shalltear)

"Indeed, it might be better to interpret that first encounter against her as a mistake caused by letting our guard down because she used such a low-level spell. Based on Aura's analysis, so long as we have sufficient preparation against holy-element attacks, we should have no issues." (Ainz)

Before the two could start their bickering, Ainz quickly stepped in with his own conclusion, causing Shalltear to immediately return her attention to Ainz.

"Their group's magic caster showed off her ability to use magic of a similar nature to the 9th tier magic, [Nuclear Blast]. However, her cast-time was incomparably worse, almost as long as it would take for me to activate Super-tier magic. Furthermore, if she really only has enough MP to cast that spell a single time, it is not very practical for actual combat. Not only that, but considering that even the Super-tier magic [Fallen Down] or [Sword of Damocles] cannot kill most of the Guardians in a single strike, that Explosion magic certainly could not either. It is difficult to seriously consider her a threat." (Ainz)

"Agreed. That. Magic. Is. Far. Too. Visible. For. A. Surprise. Attack. Yet. Too. Slow. To. Activate. Before. We. Could. Respond. Their. Crusader. Is. The. Opposite. She. Is. Tough. But. Lacks. Any. Decisive. Power. To. Damage. Us." (Cocytus)

Ainz and Cocytus examined the two from the standpoint of a gamer and warrior, though neither was terribly favorable. Still, considering the standards of the Guardians, Cocytus's words could be taken as high praise towards a human.

"Then, last would be their leader, Kazuma. What do you think of him, Demiurge?" (Ainz)

"He is not even worthy of consideration. Though I had initially marked him as worthy of investigation upon seeing him casually hit that goddess, it appears to be as Aura has judged: She simply possesses high-powered holy magic, and none of the other divinity one would expect from a god. He is every bit the lazy degenerate he initially appeared to be. Tanya-dono mentioned that he possesses anomalous luck and some ability to aid the accuracy of ranged weapons, however neither is usable. Forget about the Pleiades, I cannot imagine he could even threaten the Lizardmen." (Demiurge)

"He was the one who was so openly lusting after Albedo that time, was he not?" (Shalltear)

"Yes… Though rather than that worthless man, I'm more interested in why you would show so much respect towards that human girl, Demiurge." (Albedo)

"Do not be deceived by appearances, Albedo. Despite her age, I believe her to have intelligence nearly on par with you or myself." (Demiurge)

"Are you serious? I heave heard that she is a capable commander, but can you really make such an assertion based on just a few weeks of observation? She has hardly acted, has she not?" (Albedo)

"If you have not noticed, then you have missed it because of your own bias against humans. _She tricked you, Albedo_. She has shown you exactly the front she wanted you to see, and you convinced yourself that she was trying to seduce Ainz-sama, instead of digging any deeper. She has the mind of a demon, able to make strictly rational decisions and prioritize efficiency over everything, without falling into the traps of human emotion. I saw in her a fragment of the perfection Ainz-sama possesses." (Demiurge)

"Oho? I thought you two had become friends, but for you to offer her that much praise? This is beyond my expectation" (Ainz)

"No, no, there is no need for such words, Ainz-sama. After all, you noticed it before I did. You left with her that day because you saw through her act, did you not? For me to only notice after you pointed it out to me, I can only think of as a failure on my part." (Demiurge)

_Where did he get that idea? She was the one who called me out to talk, what part of that did he think was part of my plan? Furthermore, the reason we ended up getting along after that was because we found out we were both former Japanese, not because I saw through anything! __Why does he have this much trust in me? Not that I can say any of that!_

"Haha, so you saw through it after all.. As expected of Nazarick's strategic commander, you had already noticed then, had you not?" (Ainz)

"I am honored by your words, Ainz-sama." (Demiurge)

"So you were so afraid of her taking Ainz-sama away from you that you missed something like that? Do you have so little confidence in becoming the head wife that even that little girl threatened your position?" (Shalltear)

"Silence. Do not pretend you noticed anything that I hadn't. You were so certain that Ainz-sama wouldn't be interested in that girl's body that you felt safe, but haven't you just sealed your own fate?" (Albedo)

"_Haaah?_" Shalltear stood with a shout.

"Ah, they're at it again… I'll leave it to you to mediate, Aura" (Demiurge)

_Again? Do they regularly have these sorts of discussions? I accept that I hold some blame for tampering with Albedo's settings, but Shalltear as well? __What does she need to have that kind of obsession with dead things? __What the hell, Peroroncino!?_

"Ahem… Demiurge, what do you propose we do, then? If we assume she is indeed capable of deceiving Albedo or yourself… As I thought, do we have no choice but to go with _that_?" (Ainz)

"Indeed, I believe _that_ is our best choice. Previously I might not have thought of it, but since we already have established precedent, I believe it a reasonable solution. With your approval, I will prepare everything. (Demiurge)

_I have no idea what 'that' is though! What exactly is he suggesting for us to do to her? You said there's precedent, but I have no clue what he's referring to. Is this my fault for not reading his reports carefully enough? The last time I followed along with his plans he took over a country, so that precedent can't possibly be anything good, can it?_

"Um… What are you talking about, Demiurge?" (Mare)

_Good job, Mare!_

"Explain our plan to everybody else, Demiurge." (Ainz)

"As you wish. As you are all no doubt aware, at the core of Ainz-sama's plan to conquer the Re-Estize Kingdom is the Third Princess, Renner. She has been tasked with preparing the Kingdom for our invasion, and will later serve as its ruler and our Sorcerous Kingdom's vassal. By Ainz-sama's grace, should she succeed, she would receive the opportunity to ascend to a position equivalent to that of an Area Guardian within the ranks of Nazarick's forces. Such is what I believe to be Ainz-sama's plan, based on the hints I received." (Demiurge)

_My plan? That's completely something you came up with, isn't it? I think I saw the name Renner appear in one of his reports, but who was she, the princess? Albedo is nodding along, even Aura and Mare are acting as if they've heard this before, so is it really only me who hasn't? For now, __just nod m__agnanimously__!_

"This individual is the precedent I am referring to. Should she succeed in preparing the Kingdom and unlocking the Sealed Puzzle Box granted to her by Ainz-sama without being detected, she would prove herself qualified to serve Nazarick. What Ainz-sama is proposing is that we apply tests of a similar nature to Tanya-dono. Unfortunately, we have been dragged into this world with nothing that could take the role of the Sealed Box, so I instead propose performing the Devil's Blood Pact as a test." (Demiurge)

"Oho? The Devil's Blood Pact, that's a name I haven't heard for a long time." (Ainz)

"To know of the secrets of demons, I am once again amazed by your boundless wisdom." (Demiurge)

"I simply heard the details from Ulbert-san, it is nothing so impressive" (Ainz)

Ulbert, one of the first members of the Guild, as well as Demiurge's creator. Unknown to the guardians, he did not actually start playing YGGDRASIL as a demon, but rather had to become one using that ritual, the Devil's Blood Pact. One would first have to find a non-hostile NPC with the Archdevil race – of which very few existed – then collect 10 levels' worth of unspent experience points, which would turn be used to give the player 5 levels of the Lesser Devil race, plus 5 levels of one of the other demon-type races possessed by the NPC.

It sounded simple enough when he thought of it like this, but the ritual gave Ulbert no end of trouble. Information gathering had always been part of YGGDRASIL's core design, and there was no convenient wiki describing those requirements. It was relatively common knowledge that becoming an Imp required using 'Fallen Seeds', but other demon races were still unknown at the time. Ulbert had to figure it out himself through trial-and-error, and in the end became the first player to become part of the demon race.

Anybody less obsessed with playing a villain would probably have given up long ago, but Ulbert was convinced that YGGDRASIL wouldn't have included NPC demons without making the race playable – and turned out to be right. After that, he started proactively spreading the method to anybody who would listen, as part of his own role-play. As a result, Ainz hadn't even considered that this was supposed to be a secret among demons, though that might explain why it was so hard for Ulbert to learn about it.

Ainz paused for a moment to think and reminisce, then nodded back to Demiurge.

"Very well, Demiurge, I will support your judgment on this matter. If the individual herself accepts, you may proceed." (Ainz)

"Thank you very much, Ainz-sama" (Demiurge)

"Please forgive my ignorance, but I am unfamiliar with this pact you speak of. Could you be so kind as to enlighten me, Ainz-sama?" (Albedo)

From how Demiurge had described the pact, it was hardly surprising that Albedo and the others wouldn't have heard of it. Still, there was no need risk making a mistake with the details. Ulbert figured out the mechanics, but there was still no way for him to learn about the backstory or other details. Better to defer to the real demon for this. Ainz nodded to Demiurge, who returned the nod and began his explanation.

"The Devil's Blood Pact, as the name implies, requires an archdevil to mix their mana into their blood, then for a member of a human race to ingest that blood, and activate it with their mana. Following this, the blood will reconstruct the human's body into that of a demon's. Anybody without sufficient resistance to magic would be torn apart by the rampaging blood, or have their mind broken by the immense pain. Any human who could survive the process would deserve to be called a true demon, which is why I proposed to use it as a test. Performing the pact also has some personal meaning to both the demon and the subject, but that is not relevant at the moment, so I will leave my explanation at that." (Demiurge)

_It was something like that __brutal!? Ulbert never said anything like that! No, if I think about it logically, of course none of that would apply when it was a game. __After all, __it's not like there would be pain or real mental effects in an DMMO, so Ulbert wasn't wrong to describe it like that. To the person having their real body turn into a demon, of course something like that wouldn't __be easy. __It's a good I heard that explanation, but is it really okay to let him go through with that?_

"Demiurge, that sort of thing is hardly sufficient though, is it not? Even if that girl survives the process, it says little about her capability." (Albedo)

"I have already given my support in that regard, as has Ainz-sama. She possesses the ability to resist mental effects, and as Ainz-sama explained, to even show some resistance against his own aura. If that is not sufficient for you, I do not mind if you threaten her with your own. Anybody who falters before something of that degree has no place within Nazarick." (Demiurge)

_And they're continuing to raise the bar! __Were they always this cruel? Well, we did select 'Extreme Evil' for both of them, but when they're actually here, it's seriously terrifying!_

"Very well, I shall do exactly that. We shall see if she is worthy of being one of Ainz-sama's servants." (Albedo)

* * *

Part 3

For the rest of the day, nobody from Ainz's group made any mention of what had happened that morning. The sole exception being Albedo, who continued to leak out her murderous intent to the entire room, causing everybody else to spend the day with a lasting cold sweat, aside from one delighted-looking crusader. When Roswaal asked what she was doing, she simply glared at him and said, "I'm doing something important right now," to which he just answered, "Then it can't be heeeeeelped," and didn't touch the subject again.

To Tanya, it was worrying at first, but since it didn't seem like Albedo was actually going to attack, only to scare her. Perhaps she was opposed to the offer, but she wouldn't act against orders. Probably.

Doing her best to ignore the pressure coming from behind, she thought about the offer they had given her. Work as Demiurge's subordinate. You will be expected to apply your knowledge of military tactics, and to adapt it for use with undead armies. You may be required to instruct others on your system of using magic. Expect to plan against and fight human countries. You will be provided artifact equipment appropriate for your station. Anti-curse countermeasures are available. High-end lodging provided. Become a demon to join up today.

She'd read through the entire letter several times, to the point of memorizing the contents, but still wasn't sure how to react.

_How do I respond to something like this? __To begin with, do I really have the option to refuse this? Albedo-san has been ready to fight this entire day, if I were to refuse the offer from Demiurge-kun and Ainz, wouldn't she take that as an insult and attack? __No… that's unlikely. Ainz told me what kind of position he was in, he might have ended up in a position where he couldn't stop her, but he'd stop them if they really tried to kill us. __I need to seriously consider __the details of the offer._

_Having a logical and rational person like Demiurge-kun as my superior doesn't sound bad, but based on how he treats Ainz, he might also be the type to __expect his subordinates __to work as Ainz's slaves and __kill themselves without hesitation u__pon making a mistake__. __I m__ight get __some degree of protection from Ainz, but I can't expect him to ruin his reputation among his subordinates just to save me._

_Working as a military commander, strategist, and military mage? Sure, that's all fine, that's what I would expect. Not sure why he had to specify that the opponents would be human, but once again, not an issue. __I don't know what sort of humans they have in that world, but from the way they act, they are among the strongest. Definitely better to be on their side than against it. __Perhaps even safer to not get involved at all, though._

_Those artifacts and curse countermeasures are extremely appealing. Ainz definitely knows about the Elenium Type-95 and its curse, so if he's offering that, he might really be able to do something about it. If anybody could do it, they could. __They clearly expect me to use it, but if they have a way to remove its curse, it would be a seriously powerful weapon without any drawbacks – nothing could be better. __The other artifacts should be quite something as well, given how expensive even their maids' equipment was._

_Being X isn't going to leave me alone, even if I went back to the Empire. He's been getting more and more aggressive with the sort of fanatics he sends after me, so even if we could win the war, I might have to spend my entire life worrying about assassination, and that's still assuming that we win. If the Empire is defeated, there's no way I'm getting out of a war crimes trial. Maybe I could avoid execution if I took advantage of my age, but it's a gamble, __one that Being X wouldn't hesitate to rig. __Against that sort of enemy, having allies on the level of Ainz would definitely be the r__ight __call._

_Leaving behind Serebryakov, Weiss, and the others after spending so long training them to be my shields seems wasteful, but if I'm worried about leaving them behind __for that reason__, then I'm definitely g__etting my priorities backwards. __I already prepared everything to transfer command to Weiss over the 2 months before coming here, and anyway my own survival is more important than anything else. __Not getting killed by Being X already took everything I had, they'll just have to figure something out without me. __Besides, they've spent enough time in hell with me to become real elites, they won't die so easily just because I'm gone._

_Then that just leaves the last point, becoming a demon? No way that's just a metaphor. I assume Demiurge-kun has some means to turn humans into demons, and accepting this job would be contingent on accepting that change.__ For all the people calling me a demon behind my back, I hadn't ever planned on actually becoming one… __From my interactions with Demiurge-kun, i__t might honestly fit me better. __If they're all like him, I might actually be able to make some friends._

_I__'d honestly surprised with __how lightly I'm taking this whole 'abandoning humanity', but maybe dying once changes the way you look at life? I already have enough people trying to kill me, I don't think growing a tail or some horns after all this would even change that much._

_Don't seem like there's much of a choice after all, not if survival is my main priority. Demiurge-kun completely s__aw through me__. I doubt he would have even given this __kind of offer without being certain that I would accept. __For all this world's inconsistencies, we can't be sure that getting to their world is even possible, but we definitely won't know without trying._

_Yes, there's only one option._

Tanya made her decision as the bell rang, then without hesitation turned towards Demiurge, who was already wearing a satisfied smile.

"Well then, please proceed this way, Tanya-dono" (Demiurge)

_Ah, a smile really is __by nature __a hostile action._

Tanya followed Demiurge out of the classroom. Lieutenant Serebryakov got up to follow her, but Tanya stopped her with a simple order. As they left, Ainz similarly turned to Albedo and said, "That's enough," but nobody else tried to follow them, so she simply continued after Demiurge without another word.

The two of them walked out into the hallway and around the corner, at which point Demiurge took her hand and activated [Greater Teleportation]. Tanya blinked from the unexpected flash, and when she opened her eyes again, she found herself in the center of a plain room, only a few meters across, with completely smooth walls and not a single door or window.

"This is…" (Tanya)

"A sealed-off room which we created for this purpose. As you can see, it is accessible only through teleportation, and far enough away from the school building to avoid attention, deep enough underground to make detection by ordinary means impossible" (Demiurge)

As he gave this brief explanation, he took a small crystal vial out of his pocket, evidently prepared beforehand. Next, he ran one of the fingers on his right hand along a section of his left arm, leaving a thin cut, then let the vial fill before moving his fingers back over the wound, closing it. Finally, he held the vial before his eyes, which released a blue flash, after which the blood in the vial darkened until it was pitch-black.

"Now, drink this. For the next several hours, you must continue running your mana through it as it spreads throughout your body. This will adapt the blood to yourself and reconstruct your body into that of a devil. Provided you survive the process with your sanity intact, you will then be qualified to join the ranks of Nazarick." (Demiurge)

"You expect me to lose my sanity from this? Is it that difficult?" (Tanya)

"I was a devil since the moment I was created by Ulbert-sama, so I cannot speak from personal experience. However, the process of the conversion is rather painful, and continuing to cycle your mana uninterrupted despite that is mentally exhausting as well. It is not something most humans could perform, but I believe you to be capable of it." (Demiurge)

Tanya examined the vial he had given her while carefully listening to his explanation.

"Wouldn't you normally explain details like that beforehand?" (Tanya)

"You aren't going to change your answer just because of something like that, so there was no meaning to doing so. I will leave this scroll for [Teleportation] here, please do feel free to use it once you are finished. I expect your style of magic to be similar enough to our arcane magic for you to have no issues with using it." (Demiurge)

Without waiting to confirm his assertion, Demiurge activated his own teleportation, leaving Tanya alone in the sealed room with the vial and the scroll. As soon as he left, she sighed.

"That's the sort of work hazard you'd normally put in the contract, isn't it? He's not wrong, though, not after I've come this far…" (Tanya)

Tanya muttered to herself while bringing the vial to her mouth, emptying the contents into her small mouth.

* * *

Part 4

The five members of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion who remained in the classroom were admittedly confused by their commanding officer suddenly leaving without saying anything. Still, they had fought under her command for long enough to trust her with their lives, and so they collectively decided to just trust Tanya's judgment.

The next morning, they entered the classroom at the usual time, freezing one after another as they passed through the door.

"The major… has a tail." (Weiss)

"Ah, gentlemen. Good morning." (Tanya)

"Good morning, Major!" (Serebryakov)

While Weiss and the others remained frozen at the door, Lieutenant Serebryakov rushed up to Tanya's side and spoke to her.

"Major, your tail is showing! Is it okay, don't you usually hide it?" (Serebryakov)

"Ah, you noticed, Lieutenant? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Imperial mage uniforms were designed with devil's tails in mind, so I can't get it to fit right anymore. Unexpected, considering that General Staff Headquarters is full of them, but maybe only their uniforms get properly fit for tails." (Tanya)

Tanya wasn't entirely sure whether Serebryakov was actually convinced by this or just playing along, but she was glad for the help in lightening the mood.

"What are the rest of you standing around for? Didn't I tell you on our way to the Federation that I originally lost mine fighting against the Republic? Since a nice devil offered to help heal it, I accepted." (Tanya)

"Is that… so… No, actually, if Major was a demon from the start, a lot of what happened up until now starts to make much more sense. Don't you all think so as well?" (Weiss)

Captain Weiss caught on to where she was going with this, and started playing along.

_Ah, having good subordinates really is great. Those two understand me well enough at this point to guess my intentions without needing to spell everything out, which really simplifies troublesome matters like this._

"When you put it that way, Captain, you're right. I'm convinced." (Neumann)

"No, no, are you really okay with this?" (Grantz)

"So that's how it is, gentlemen. It's unfortunate, but it doesn't seem like I'll be coming back with the rest of you. Captain Weiss, it looks like you're going to get that promotion to Major sooner than you thought, just need to get the confirmation from General Staff." (Tanya)

"Kazuma, Kazuma, the army girl grew a tail! Any way you look at it she's a demon, right? I'm sure this is the work of the undead and his minions, this is why I said we should have done something about them!" (Aqua)

"Aqua, are you seriously still trying to pick fights with them? And now not only Ainz's group, but you're even trying to pick on her just because she grew a tail? You really are getting out of control, berserk goddess." (Kazuma)

"But demons are evil beings! They're all servants of the Demon King, it's my responsibility as a Goddess to destroy them. You too, Kazuma, how are you supposed to defeat the Demon King if you're not fighting against demons?" (Aqua)

"Oho? Are you planning on fighting me, Satou Kazuma?" (Tanya)

Kazuma hit Aqua's head without hesitation and turned towards Tanya to give a salute.

"Not at all, Ma'am! I apologize!" (Kazuma)

Tanya nodded at his response then went back to talking to her men.

"Kazuma got trained so well in such a short time… Ah, I wish I could have gone through that kind of training as well, maybe if I begged she might still… But for a crusader to bow down and beg a demon, would be so wonderfully humiliating…" (Darkness)

The crusader's monologue was magnificently ignored.

"Kazuma, Kazuma, I want one of those too!" (Megumin)

"You want to get hit?" (Kazuma)

"Not that, her tail, I want one of those tails! It's only fitting for a Crimson Demon to have a demon's tail, but she beat me to getting one. Go find out where I can get one of those!" (Megumin)

"She's scary so I don't want to, go ask yourself, or send Darkness, she'd probably be fine even if she got shot." (Kazuma)

Kazuma seemed fully content with ignoring his party members' antics, as per usual. He sat down and put his head down on the desk, occasionally responding to Aqua and Megumin with, "Sure, sure."

"Looks like you've started getting along better than expeeeeected." (Roswaal)

"Roscchi-sensei, does that really count as getting along?" (Subaru)

"Well, if the person herself doesn't mind, it's fiiiiine. Violence is against the school rules, but there's no particular rule against becoming a deeevil." (Roswaal)

"Is that really how those rules are meant to be interpreted…" (Subaru)

"I believe there is no issue with such an interpretation, however. As we have previously been informed, any actions which would endanger our school life are strictly forbidden. Contrarily, any action which does not inhibit our ability to act as students is therefore permitted. Whether Tanya-dono remains a human or becomes a devil is therefore irrelevant to the school rules." (Demiurge)

"Does such convenient logic really pass?" (Subaru)

"I see no issue with it. Let us begin claaass." (Roswaal)

The rest of the day went by as per usual, with a distinct lack of any actual learning, as was the norm for this school. When they returned from lunch, however, the front of the room was decorated with a large 'Graduation' banner.

"What the hell? Even the world is this strange, isn't this too sudden? You had that whole foreshadowing about new transfer students and everything, I thought we were supposed to be safe for a while longer!" (Kazuma)

"Welllll, they were supposed to get here, but it turns out that one of them is rather adept at tearing apart dimensions, so they tried to escaaaape. We're still trying to catch them, but none of our teachers are specialists in thaaaat field. Since you fulfilled the graduation requirements, this event ended up happening before thaaaaat." (Roswaal)

"I understand, so it was that sort of thing." (Demiurge)

"What part of that explanation made sense to you?" (Kazuma)

"If you simply listen and put together everything we have been told up until now, it becomes quite simple. When that man, Roswaal-sensei, told us that we may be able to go home if we won the recent competition, he was not deceiving us. While you might have interpreted this as him playing on his usage of 'maybe', it is in fact much more accurate to conclude that the competition was meant to provide us a means to fulfill some condition required for graduation, which we failed to accomplish, and as such were unable to return at that time. Perhaps each event up until now was meant to provide us such an opportunity, but our inadvertent success means cancelling those other events and skipping straight to the end." (Demiurge)

"Oya? Well, that may be coreeect. Either way, your school life has come to a clooose." (Roswaal)

As he said this, Roswaal took out a remote with a single button, which he pressed. Immediately after, the world began to distort.

"This is way too suddennnnn!" (Kazuma)


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Part 1

The distortion was just like the one which had first brought them to that unusual world. Unlike teleportation spells it was not an instantaneous flash, but closer to a gradual change without a noticeable turning point. Before Tanya noticed the change, she found herself in a massive room, lit by brilliant chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, easily fifty meters above her head.

A grand throne rose up in front of the wall before her, next to which stood an elderly butler with a large frame, prepared to fight the intruders. As soon as he confirmed Ainz and the Guardians, however, he kneeled and lowered his head.

"Welcome back, Ainz-sama. I apologize if I have overstepped my authority, however after the disappearance of yourself, Albedo-sama, and Demiurge-sama, I ordered Nazarick to the highest security level. Our remaining forces have been watching out for potential intruders, however there has been no followup attack. Should I give the order to return to standard security levels?" (Sebas)

"Do not worry, Sebas, you acted exactly as I would have hoped. I apologize for our sudden disappearance, but am glad to see that our emergency response procedures are working as intended. Has anything else happened during our absence?" (Ainz)

"Absence? I apologize, Ainz-sama, but I do not understand the meaning of your question. You and the Guardians have only been gone for approximately 30 minutes. Aside from what I have just mentioned, Nazarick has had no interactions with the outside world." (Sebas)

"I do not believe that either of us are mistaken about how much time has passed. As such, we should instead consider that perhaps the discrepancy is a result of the world where we spent the last month being under the effects of a large-scale time control magic. If we assume an entity is capable of large-scale interdimensional teleportation, magic of that scale may well be within their capabilities." (Demiurge)

"Indeed, that is the conclusion I came to as well, upon hearing Sebas's report." (Ainz)

"I apologize for my meaningless remark, Ainz-sama" (Demiurge)

"No need, I am glad to hear that somebody of your wisdom agrees with what I think." (Ainz)

"I am unworthy of your praise, Ainz-sama." (Demiurge)

As Tanya watched this interaction between the three, Sebas's gaze turned towards her.

"Ainz-sama, if I may ask, who is that female devil? During your absence I asked the Area Guardians on each floor to figure out if anybody else was missing, but I had not heard that any of Demiurge-sama's subordinates had disappeared." (Sebas)

Tanya briefly considered introducing herself, but thought better of it. If Sebas had the authority to issue orders in the absence of Ainz and the Guardians, interrupting to answer the question directed at Ainz could easily be seen as disrespectful.

"Ah, you are correct, Sebas. She is Tanya, a former human who will henceforth be working directly under Demiurge. She is to be treated as every other member of Nazarick." (Ainz)

"Understood. My name is Sebas Tian, please call me Sebas. Please feel free to ask if you require any assistance." (Sebas)

"Nice to meet you, Sebas-sama, I am Tanya Degurechaff. As Ainz-sama explained, I was brought to this world to become Demiurge-sama's subordinate." (Tanya)

Having been spoken to directly, Tanya now gave her own introduction. Unlike in the classroom, she adjusted her speech to match Ainz's other members. After a few years in the military, this sort of acting wasn't too much of a change.

"Mmm. Now that introductions are complete, everybody is to return to their regular duties. Yuri Alpha, give Tanya a full tour of Nazarick's main floors, then return here two hours from now. Demiurge, return here at that time as well. Albedo and CZ Delta, remain here for further orders. The rest of you, return to your regular duties." (Ainz)

Ainz waited for everybody else to leave before turning his attention to the two who remained.

"Albedo, CZ Delta, I want you two to go to the armory and retrieve, let's see… Bring Lancer's Rifle, Curse Lord's Bracelets, Emerald Dragonscale Armor, and Ring of the Eldest Magi." (Ainz)

"… Ainz-sama, if that equipment is meant to be a gift for that girl, I believe those to be far too valuable for a mere newcomer. In particular, the Emerald Dragonscale Armor is a legendary-class artifact, equivalent to those worn by Aura and Mare. I must object to that selection." (Albedo)

"Treasured equipment is meaningless if there is nobody to use it, Albedo. Back when we were gathering materials to make Aura and Mare's equipment, ended up over-hunting, and so made a third piece for the set, but only Aura and Mare were created to wear them. Ever since then, the third one has been gathering dust in our armory. There is nobody else here who could make good use of light armor that size, so I'm sure Bukubuku Chagama-san would agree." (Ainz)

Lancer's Rifle was a relic-class weapon for gunners. It had originally been in the running for CZ's primary weapon, however unlike most gunner weapons, it used the wielder's magical attack instead of physical attack, which CZ was not designed for. In the end, it had been tossed aside in favor of CZ's current gun, which despite being a rank lower, was a much more effective weapon for CZ. Since none of Nazarick's main members had a use for it, the rifle had been left somewhere in the armory without having ever fired a single shot.

The Curse Lord's Bracelets were a legacy-class item which used the slot for gloves, but did not provide any armor, only magical effects. It carried a wide range of elemental resistances and granted some status effect immunities, but far more interesting was its property of negating the effects of all cursed items worn by the user, up to and including divine-class artifacts. Although he couldn't be certain whether the mental effects caused by Tanya's Type-95 would actually qualify as a cursed item, this seemed like a good place to start.

The Emerald Dragonscale Armor was, as Albedo had said, one of three pieces in a set, alongside Aura's Ruby and Mare's Sapphire. She was correct in saying that legendary-class artifacts like that would normally only be worn by Nazarick's level 100 NPCs, but Ainz thought it unlikely that another user would appear any time soon.

Even if she had her body strengthened upon gaining 10 levels in devil races, she didn't seem likely to have much HP. Better to over-equip than take the level sacrifice required for resurrection magic, especially when the item didn't have another user.

Finally, the Ring of the Eldest Magi was another legacy-class item, one of the rings Ainz wore until he was around level 60. Since the MP and Magic Defense boosts it provided were static boosts rather than percentage-based, it was almost useless to level 100 casters. To prevent such items from breaking the balance of low-level characters, static stat boosts were capped to at most double the relevant stat.

At Ainz's level, the ring would give him less than a 5% increase to his MP, which was hardly worth using one of his ring slots for. He had used [Mana Sense] to estimate Tanya's mana, and placed her at just under the level needed for the ring to double her mana, meaning she was at almost the exact level to get the most possible benefit out of the ring. The relative benefits would lessen over time, but should give her an incredible offensive and defensive boost.

_Ah, speaking of equipment, there was also that, wasn't there… I almost forgot._

Ainz reached into his inventory and pulled out a rectangular metal case, a little over a meter in length. Before they had left, Demiurge had suggested that Ainz put Tanya's combat gear in his inventory for safe-keeping. The gear was far too cumbersome for her to wear all day, but somebody needed to keep in contact to avoid leaving it behind should they suddenly return, as Demiurge had correctly predicted. They had no proof that items could be carried out at all, but his inventory still had all his scrolls and potions, so they assumed the reverse would be true, and it had indeed worked.

"CZ Delta, I recalled a different task I have for you. Take this equipment to the Chief Librarian, and see if it would be possible to enchant using our methods. Your job classes appear similar to hers, so have them apply combat-related enchantments you choose for your own equipment. After that, repaint it with our Guild's emblem. If this is not possible for you to complete in two hours, you may take longer, but make sure this task is completed." (Ainz)

"… Understood." (CZ)

CZ accepted the case from Ainz, bowed, and left.

"Albedo. Do you still have objections about my choice of equipment?" (Ainz)

"I apologize. Of course, if you order it, I will immediately depart to gather those items, but I do not understand why you would go so far just for Demiurge's pet." (Albedo)

"You are underestimating humans too much, Albedo. While it is true that the vast majority of them are not worthy of our note, there are occasionally some who can be of great value to Nazarick. You will see in a few weeks' time, I am certain that she will prove worthy of these gifts." (Ainz)

"As you wish, Ainz-sama." (Albedo)

_She really did seem trusted by her subordinates, plus Demiurge vouched for her ability… __If he's wrong, I'll look like an idiot, but I just have to trust them._

* * *

Part 2

"Unbelievable…" (Albedo)

"I must admit this has exceeded even my expectations." (Demiurge)

"Are you satisfied with seeing this, Albedo?" (Ainz)

"Yes, I apologize for wasting your time with my foolish doubts." (Albedo)

"Do not worry, everybody makes mistakes. I always value your and Demiurge's opinions. Had he not suggested it, I wouldn't have even considered recruiting somebody from that world." (Ainz)

"No, no, even I had my doubts at times, but Ainz-sama's estimate of her ability was flawless. I had expected to pick up a tactician, but Ainz-sama was able to turn her into a combatant not inferior to the Pleiades using only spare equipment. You have once again shown me how far I still have to go." (Demiurge)

Both Albedo and Demiurge were kneeling in front of Ainz with expressions of adoration and utmost respect. Two weeks had passed since their return, and the three were currently in the 6th floor Colosseum, observing a demonstration, or rather a test of Tanya's combat ability.

Her opponents were the six members of the Pleiades, excluding Aureole Omega, who was level 100 and thus far too powerful to perform a meaningful test. She was by no means expected to win. Ainz had estimated her total level at around 35, meaning that every single one of the Pleiades was no less than 10 levels above her. By all expectations, this should have just been a test of how long she could survive against six stronger opponents. And yet, those expectations had been proven utterly wrong.

She had lost. The fight ended only when Ainz interrupted it, with Tanya trying to continue fighting despite having lost her left leg and newly-gained tail during the fighting. They could be easily healed, but it was getting too dangerous to let the fight continue without risking her accidentally getting killed. She was expected to have lost, but the fight wasn't supposed to be _close_.

Admittedly, the Pleiades were fighting under several restrictions.

First, like the mock-combat above the Holy Kingdom, they were required to voluntarily drop out if their HP dropped below 50%. Unlike when they were fighting against Ainz, this was just to serve as a disadvantage, not because he had expected them to get killed.

Second, to prevent them from killing their opponent before the fight could be stopped, they were limited to using only 5th tier attack magic and below. For the same reason, instant death effects such as Solution's assassin skills were forbidden.

Finally, although not an explicit restriction, they were fighting blind. Whereas Tanya was given reports detailing the combat maids' abilities, there was no such information to provide them, so all they knew of her combat style was what they had seen during their time in the other world.

All these advantages had been intended to prolong the fight so it would be easier to analyze. Even one of the Pleiades being taken out would be equivalent to top marks, enough to satisfy Demiurge and quell Albedo's complaints.

They had underestimated how much of an advantage the open sky of the Colosseum would give Tanya. The fight had been expected to be primarily aerial, but misunderstood what it would mean for the Pleiades. They could fly freely using [Mass Fly], but against Tanya who could now continuously use the full power of the Type-95 without its curse, they were completely outclassed.

Narberal could use [Teleportation] to close the distance and strike, but unlike [Greater Teleportation], only the caster would teleport, which meant giving up all the advantages of their teamwork. Furthermore, the restriction on her attack magic prevented her from being able to get a decisive hit in.

She made several attempts to catch Tanya in a pincer attack using her teleportation, but this allowed Tanya to predict where she would teleport to, catching her with a full-power attack from point-blank range, nearly taking her out as well. Narberal dropping out would mean half of the Pleiades losing their ability to fly, which would be equivalent to losing the entire fight, so she had no choice but to remain defensive after that.

The primary ranged fighter of the Pleiades, CZ, was also the lowest level at only 46. She possessed the Sniper job and remarkably high attack for her level, but even an automaton could not reliably track Tanya with the difference in their flying speed. She did land a single direct hit, using a skill to pierce Tanya's magic shell and injure her, but had no means to block the return fire, getting taken out early in the fight.

After that, the fight began to drag on. Long-range attacks would either be avoided or blocked by Yuri and Lupusregina, but closing the distance would open her up to counterattacks. Tanya had to continuously use a large amount of her magic to keep up that speed, but the Pleiades only needed Narberal to maintain her spell. She could not sustain a prolonged fight, so had to close the distance.

When she tried to, however, Solution used her stealth to catch her leg, dissolving it entirely. They had expected that to be the end, but instead she was cut by Tanya's tail which similarly dissolved, but the unexpected counterattack broke Solution's balance and opened a bit of distance, after which she took several direct hits, taking her out.

Ainz had called the fight shortly after that, out of concern for the safety of the participants. Not only was Tanya clearly severely injured, but even Solution had her HP brought dangerously low when she took several consecutive attacks before being told to drop out.

"I suspect that her very system of using magic may be more efficient that ours. [Mana Sense] suggests that her limit should be 5th tier magic, yet she's using attacks closer to our 7th tier magic. Back when she attacked Aqua, the magic she momentarily released was nearly 9th tier. I had assumed that to be one of the effects of her artifact, but that was my mistake. I can't even begin to image what sort of power could be attainable if somebody with my level of MP were to gain her level of mastery in that system, or worse yet if such an entity were our enemy." (Ainz)

"Should we kill her now, after all? If she has that much power at such a low level, combined with the knowledge she gains of Nazarick's internal strucure, she may grow to be too dangerous to leave alive." (Albedo)

"Even still, I believe it is worth the risk. As Ainz-sama has always been saying, we must always proceed with the assumption that there are enemies who are stronger than us. In such a situation, discarding such a valuable piece out of fear that it may be taken from us would be a foolish move." (Demiurge)

"Indeed, this may be precisely the new source of power I have been hoping to find ever since Nazarick appeared in this world. As opposed to the physically-focused Martial Arts, that sort of magic-based power seems far more likely to help me to gain power. We must continue to be wary of enemies with World-Class items, but this incident has proven the possibility of entities which exist beyond the rules of YGGDRASIL's systems. I am glad that our first such meeting was an ally rather than an enemy." (Ainz)

"I beg your pardon, Ainz-sama, but would our first encounter not be with Aqua? For her to be able to harm somebody at level 100 with a 2nd tier [Turn Undead], would that not also qualify? Both Shalltear and Ainz-sama should be nearly immune to such low level magic regardless of the caster's level, after all." (Albedo)

"Ah… I had forgotten about her, but you are correct, Albedo. Although she cast a spell as we normally might, that outcome would only be possible if the caster were far above level 100, or otherwise possessed some ability unknown to us. Considering her frailty, I believe it unlikely that she has such a high level, as we would understand it. At such a level, even a magic caster would have sufficient defense to be immune to a human's attacks." (Ainz)

Unlike when YGGDRASIL was a game, there was no longer a need for him to log off early in preparation for the next day's work. And so, the discussion between Ainz, Demiurge, and Albedo continued uninterrupted until next morning.

* * *

Part 3

Moments before Yuri Alpha's fist struck Tanya in the chest, Ainz signaled the end of the fight, upon which Yuri stopped attacking and returned to the ground. Tanya followed after her, or at least tried, however she was barely conscious due to severe blood loss, so her 'landing' would better be described as 'crashing'.

The dragonscale had lived up to its reputation as legendary-class, and prevented any lethal wounds to her torso, but repeated strikes from the higher level opponents would still break bones. Internal bleeding aside, she had also gotten shot by CZ, whose bullets were small-caliber, yet easily pierced through her double-layered shell, which now wouldn't have budged to direct hits from 155mm shells.

Using magic to negate one's sense of pain could allow a mage to continue flying through injuries, but her body could only function for so long before it began to fail; fighting on willpower could only get her so far.

"Lupusregina, treat her immediately." (Yuri)

"Right~ [Heal]." (Lupusregina)

The 6th tier magic took effect immediately, Tanya's wounds glowing with a pale green light, which when dimmed left her completely unharmed, even replacing the lost limb and missing tip of her tail. Within a second, every wound she had suffered had vanished without a trace.

Feeling her strength returning, Tanya started to get up, but was interrupted by Yuri Alpha, who quietly grabbed her from behind and pulled her down to one knee, into a perfect row with the rest of the Pleiades, who were already kneeling in the direction of Ainz, Albedo, and Demiurge.

"Listen well! Pleiades, as well as Tanya. That was a brilliant demonstration of Nazarick's power. You have shown a magnificent battle, one I am glad to have watched. Now, you may go rest. As a reward, the 9th floor Spa Resort is open for your enjoyment!" (Ainz)

"Thank you very much, Ainz-sama!" (Pleiades+Tanya)

They stood up at the same time, Only Tanya lagging slightly behind, unused to their timing. None of them spoke as they walked out of the Colosseum in a neat line, heading down to Nazarick's 9th floor.

Tanya sat down into the hot water. The floors were cleaner and brighter than the whitest marble, while the bath itself was of a size where it wouldn't be wrong to think of it as a swimming pool. Statues were positioned at regular intervals around the perimeter of the bath, behind which each wall was covered with various murals, nearly two stories tall, flowing from one side of the entrance door, around the entire room and ending at the other side. The whole room was well-lit by a illuminant dome ceiling, filling the room with a gentle white light.

This was known as the Roman bath, but she was fairly certain that no Roman emperor had ever built a bath anywhere near this exquisite. She briefly wondered why Ainz and his companions had bothered to build such a resort while Nazarick was only part of a game, but gave it up and decided to just be glad that they had, enjoying it as much as she could.

The bath water went beyond simply 'warm' and while definitely too hot for humans to stay in comfortably, but with the passive resistance against fire damage that all devil-type races gave, she found it wonderfully relaxing. She stretched out her still sore body, then closed her eyes and let herself sink down into the water.

_Back in the Empire, I was glad to have access to a warm bathtub while in the capital, and even that would have been cramped if not for this small body. Out on the front, forget baths, even finding the opportunity to wipe yourself down with a wet cloth wasn't always possible. Becoming a demon might have been worth it just f__or a chance to use __this sort of bath._

Tanya opened her eyes and looked down at her hands, running her fingers across her palms to feel the smooth texture. The years she had spent with her rifle had turned her hands rough and calloused, yet she could no longer feel a single bump. Pressing her fingers into the skin, she could tell that it was much harder than usual, more durable than before. It wouldn't stop a knife, but she doubted she could pierce it with a sewing needing anymore.

Next, she ran her hands up her arms to her left shoulder, then down to the right side of her chest, just above the hip. The two spots had held mementos of her earliest combat, from the first time she had been shot. Too much time had passed between when she received the wounds and when they were treated, so while they could prevent infection, Imperial medical officers had told her that the scars would remain. She couldn't even find where either wound was supposed to have been.

She tucked her left leg in, holding the foot between both hands, then slowly began to extend it outwards. Wrapping her fingers around the thin limb, she gently pulled them towards herself, around the knee and over her thigh. No more than an hour ago, the entire limb had been roughly severed and dissolved, yet there was not a single bump along the entire length to remind her of the gruesome spectacle.

"Ah, Tanya-chan is playing with herself in the bath! They really grow up so fast… Ouch!" (Lupusregina)

"Stop saying ridiculous things, Lupusregina. Could it be that this is your first time experiencing healing magic, Tanya-san?" (Yuri)

Tanya jumped at the sudden accusation, nearly slipping off the ledge into the center of the bath. She caught the edge and turned around to look at the entrance, where Lupusregina was rubbing her head with a smile after getting hit by Yuri. After taking a moment to recover and process what she had just heard, Tanya was able to respond.

"While it wouldn't be accurate to call it the very first time, the medical magic from then can't be called the same as the healing you provided. Thank you very much, Yuri-sama, Lupusregina-sama" (Tanya)

"Please, there is no need for such formality. If you are a direct subordinate of Demiurge, then our ranks should be fairly similar. Even if you are originally an outsider, Ainz-sama has made it clear that you are to be treated just as any other member of Nazarick. Nobody here would do something as disgraceful as to disobey." (Yuri)

"Then once again, thank you, Yuri-san, Lupusregina-san. Not only were my injuries from our battle healed, but even scars from years ago have vanished." (Tanya)

Tanya gave her sincere thanks to the two while they got into the bath and sat down to her left.

"But really, that was some amazing exercise! I hadn't had somebody to play around with like that for a really long time. Are you sure you used to be a human?" (Lupusregina)

Lupusregina squeezed close to Tanya and started playing with the tip of her tail. It was admittedly somewhat ticklish, but Tanya was gradually getting the impression that there would be no point to saying anything, so she just gave up and let her do so.

"You really got Shi-chan and So-chan good! If there were more humans like that, even Na-chan would have to give in and stop calling them insects, what with how you beat her up." (Lupusregina)

"I hardly think it's fair to associate an individual personally recognized by Ainz-sama and Demiurge-sama with the rest of those lower lifeforms, even if she is a former human." (Narberal)

"Tte, you were here, Na-chan, and Shi-chan too. Are So-chan and En-chan coming?" (Lupusregina)

"Why do you sound disappointed by that? Entoma is off playing with some white spiders she found, Solution wanted to bathe alone." (Narberal)

"Did we have those around here?" (Lupusregina)

"Who knows where it came from… but if Entoma is happy with it, there's no problem." (Narberal)

"…" (CZ)

While explaining, Narberal entered the bath next to Yuri, relaxing in the water. Meanwhile, CZ got in next to Tanya, on the opposite side from Lupusregina. Without a word, she just continued to stare unblinking at Tanya.

"… Jiiiiii~" (CZ)

"No, you don't have to narrate that…" (Tanya)

The automaton girl's first word (?) made Tanya unconsciously retort.

"… You're a little cute, so this is for you." (CZ)

CZ poked Tanya's forehead with two fingers, then pulled them back and nodded, satisfied with the result.

"Eh?" (Tanya)

She touched the same spot on her forehead, feeling a rounded bump the size of a quarter.

"Did you just stick something to my head?" (Tanya)

"… Nn. It looks good." (CZ)

"Just what is… Hm? Eh?" (Tanya)

She pinched the edges of the bump, trying to peel it off. Surprisingly though, it did not budge. She tried again, wedging the tip of her fingernails underneath it, putting her full strength into removing it. Still, it resisted, clearly not intending to be removed unless torn off together with the skin underneath it.

"… The same reaction as Neia. Cute." (CZ)

"Iiiyaaaaaah! This time I'm the one who got stolen from! Shi-chan, how could you do such a thing!" (Lupusregina)

Lupusregina fell backwards in an exaggerated display, falling onto Yuri who was sitting behind her. In response, Yuri hit her on the head and told her to be quiet, pushing her into the center of the bath. Undeterred, she laughed while spreading her arms and laying down to float on the surface of the water.

"CZ-san, is there nowhere else you could have put it? Having it on my head really is distracting, so…" (Tanya)

Having failed at solving the problem with force, Tanya instead turned towards persuasion as a means to save herself.

"… Neia said it would be better to stick it to clothes, but you weren't wearing clothes, so there was no choice." (CZ)

"Right… I apologize for not wearing clothes… Would you mind removing it temporarily so I can put it on my armor once we leave the bath?" (Tanya)

Negotiations had failed. She gave up on trying to argue and just conceded. CZ took a small bottle out of… somewhere, pressed it to Tanya's forehead, then pulled the sticker off while patting Tanya on the head.

"… Nn. Good girl." (CZ)

_Just do what you want. __I __don't even care anymore._

* * *

Part 4

The fake Nazarick which Aura had constructed was now primarily used as a base to store supplies, and a sort of teleportation hub. The real Nazarick had anti-teleportation defenses which prevented teleportation into or out of the tomb, and unlike YGGDRASIL, this now even affected Nazarick's members, as a result of the possibility of friendly fire which had not been present during the game.

When a Floor Guardian needed to enter Nazarick, they would usually coordinate with those inside to temporarily lower Nazarick's defenses. For most of the ordinary forces, however, they would first teleport into this fort then travel to Nazarick the normal way. Those who could not use teleportation magic but were still sent on missions outside Nazarick would be paired up with somebody who could use high-level teleportation magic, or otherwise have to travel by their own strength.

If somebody was to be deployed at distant cities in the Holy Kingdom, they would generally have to be grouped together with others who share the same destination, then be sent over using [Gate]. For a shorter trip such as one to E-Rantel, it would almost always be faster to just travel the normal way, unless one happened to be lucky and be deployed while a [Gate] was being used to mass-transport resources.

Tanya was performing her final equipment check before departing. Ainz had provided her with a Magic Bag containing healing potions (several Nfirea-made purple potions, plus two YGGDRASIL true potions), scrolls ([Teleport] and [Invisibility] for emergencies, with a large amount of mass-produced [Message] scrolls), and rations (Nazarick's portable rations tasted better than restaurant food back in the Empire, so she wasn't complaining).

As Ainz had explained, the Magic Bag was a mid-tier storage bag with about half the capacity of his many Infinite Backpacks. However, as she did not have access to a game-like inventory like Ainz and many of the Guardians, the smaller bag was a less burdensome choice than the full-size backpack, which nearly as big as the bags she was made to carry during training exercises.

Her new gun, the Lancer's Rifle, was different from most other spell guns since rather than using mana to fire physical bullets like CZ, hers would directly fire the mana to deal damage, negating the need to carry around ammunition. Normally she would have also packed a combat knife to serve as a backup weapon and utility tool, but her razor-tipped tail already accomplished that.

Magic Bags had the incredibly useful property of weighing only as much as the leather they were made of, no matter how much mass they actually contained. Her old Imperial aerial mage combat kit could easily total seventy kilograms and required constantly maintaining a support formula to so much as walk around with. Now, the only part of that kit remaining was the flight gear, which according to Ainz had a large amount of 'spare data', and had been filled up with enchantments to reduce its weight, increase agility, and passively boost accuracy. Besides that, she only had to wear the Dragonscale Armor and carry the rifle, both of which were far lighter than they appeared.

Moving around was easier without the extra weight, aiming was faster with the lighter gun, and its lack of physical bullets meant absolutely no recoil to hurt her shoulder like standard-issue rifles had. The lack of weight made her uneasy, as if she had forgotten something, but she had already gone through the full list in her head three times, verifying that everything was accounted for. Finally satisfied, she closed the Magic Bag.

Exactly on schedule, Tanya activated her flight gear, gained some altitude, and accelerated to full speed, heading in the direction of E-Rantel.

Six months had passed since Jaldabaoth's first appearance in the outskirts of the capital, and much had changed. The two factions of the castle, the Royal Faction and Noble Faction, had both been severely weakened, but the damage to the Royal faction was clearly worse. With the disappearance and presumed death of Prince Barbro, the king had fallen into a deep depression, secluding himself in his bedroom. Only recently had he started coming out again, but he was a pale shadow of his former self.

Prince Zanack was doing his best to keep the faction together, but his single most capable ally, Marquis Raeven, had not left his domain since the war. The Noble Faction was intending to push the blame for the defeat entirely onto the king, who wouldn't even hold court to defend his position. In the worst case, some slightly-strong fool convinced of his own invincibility might even call for retaliation against the Sorcerous Kingdom. That alone must be avoided at all costs.

Aside from threats out of the Noble Faction, he could not even let his guard down around his sister, Princess Renner. The nobles had lost their leaders and their armies. The king had lost his strongest warrior and friend, Gazef Stronoff, and most of his supporters. He himself had all but inherited the throne, but gained only enemies as a result. Only Renner had retained all her forces, retaining both the loyalty of Brain Unglaus and personal friendship of Blue Rose.

If she wanted to, she alone had more than enough military power behind her to seize the throne from him. Still, he didn't expect her to do anything likely to plunge the country into civil war with the threat of the Sorcerous Kingdom looming over them. After all, even if she were to crush both the Noble Faction and the remnants of the Royal Faction, too little would remain for her to even offer tribute. Most of the nobles might not forgive their lifelong grudges just to fight a common enemy, but Renner knew better than to die together with him out of spite.

Renner had little interest in ruling: if she were told to pick between the throne and Climb, she would pick the latter without a moment's delay. Even with the option to take both, she would probably still let somebody else take the throne to take more time along with Climb, so long as her own place next to Climb was guaranteed. So long as he was useful to her, so long as he promised to fulfill her desires, she would happily let him take the throne.

All this was contingent on him being able to unite the kingdom and take the throne. While some among the Royal Faction might be willing to support him, many of the remaining nobles were taking advantage of the fact that Prince Barbro's body hadn't been recovered to declare him missing rather than dead, and thus refusing to let the succession officially proceed.

Still, it wasn't as though everything was against him. When Ainz Ooal Gown annihilated the Kingdom's army, he had also killed the heads of three of the six great noble houses, Marquis Bowlrob and Count Ritton, both of whom had been core members of the Noble Faction, as well as Marquis Volumlash, who had been selling information to the Empire. Margrave Urovana, understanding the desperate situation the Kingdom was in, accepted that Prince Barbro was dead and moved his support to Prince Zanack. Finally, though Marquis Raeven had retired to his estate to be with his young son, he would not refuse a summons to court, if he desperately needed the support.

What spurred him to action was a peculiar bit of news he heard from merchants traveling from the Holy Kingdom: The Sorcerer King had personally gone to fight Jaldabaoth, and lost. Normally he would think this far too convenient to be true, however this was not the first he had heard of this. Several weeks before, Renner had told him that paladins from the Holy Kingdom had come to ask for help from Blue Rose, who had refused, and directed them to Momon in E-Rantel.

Could it really be true? Had they gone to ask help from the Sorcerous Kingdom, but instead of Momon they had earned the support of the kingdom itself? Thinking back, the timing coincided almost perfectly with Albedo, their envoy, leaving without warning earlier than scheduled. Even if that monster had not died, could he perhaps be injured and unable to move? If that were the case, perhaps if it was now, he could…

By numbers alone, Zanack had the support he needed to take the throne. If he were to officially call for his father to resign, the six great nobles would be called to the capital to debate the matter, as well as to select a successor. Urovana, and Raeven should support him; Bowlrob and Ritton were both dead, and while their children would definitely oppose him, neither was capable or experienced enough to give a solid argument against it. Volumlash had died with no successor, so his land had tentatively reverted to the King until somebody else could be given the title. Last, there was Marquis Pespeya.

Pespeya was married to the First Princess, giving him a claim to the throne of his own. However, his supporters had primarily been unaffiliated minor nobles, a great many of whom had also been caught up in Ainz Ooal Gown's attack. Although Zanack couldn't be sure, he didn't think that Pespeya would try to press his claim even in these circumstances. He had heard good things about Pespeya's character and ability, so it'd be 3-2 in Zanack's favor.

Zanack sighed. He was not like Renner: Betraying his father like this tore at his heart. Even if he knew it had to be done, for the survival of his country, he could not simply discard everything to accomplish his objective without a shred of guilt or regret, not the way she could. Still, it did have to be done. For the sake of his country, for the sake of his people, he must take the mantle onto his own shoulders. No matter the cost.

The strongest group of adamantite-ranked adventurers residing in the Re-Estize Kingdom, Blue Rose, had undoubtedly fallen on hard times. After Gagaran and Tia had been killed by Jaldabaoth, Lakyus had planned to pull back for some time to let them recover, but the two didn't like the idea of just sitting around waiting to recover. They knew that continuously fighting monsters as training would speed up their recovery. They argued about it for a while, gaining the advantage when they won Evileye to their side by promising to relocate to E-Rantel and fight the undead of the Katze Plains.

As they were preparing for the trip from the capital to E-Rantel, the Baharuth Empire sent its ultimatum, declaring the area around E-Rantel to be the lawful property of the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown, ready to declare their annual war against the Re-Estize Kingdom. E-Rantel naturally became the staging ground, all but closing it to non-military purposes. Being a party of adamantite-ranked adventurers, Blue Rose could have gotten in regardless, but were warned against doing so by Princess Renner.

Considering how rare it was for Renner to give a warning like that, Lakyus decided to trust her judgment, thereby avoiding getting stuck in E-Rantel when the Kingdom surrendered. Unfortunately, this also meant that their recovery was only just finishing up now, having missed out on two months of practice before the war, and after that none of them liked the idea of leaving Renner with the kingdom in such a dire position, so they continued to remain in the capital.

At the heart of the Kingdom, the capital had relatively few high-level tasks fit for adamantite-ranked adventures. Monsters could occasionally be found in the hills and forests around the kingdom, but these were rarely stronger than what iron or gold-ranked adventurers could defeat. Well, more precisely, it wasn't as though there were no strong monsters, but that the strong monsters had come under the rule of Ainz Ooal Gown. Having experienced their crushing defeat against Jaldabaoth and his fight against Momon, they knew better than to try touching the sort of monster who could threaten Momon into submission.

Besides, the Adventurer's Guild had forbidden it. Shortly after the end of the war, some nobles who had lost their sons to Ainz Ooal Gown's attack had tried to issue requests to the guild for the subjugation of the monsters occupying E-Rantel. In response, the guild declared that the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick, being recognized by the Baharuth Empire's alliance and the Re-Estize Kingdom's peace treaty, was a legitimate nation. No member of the Adventurer's Guild was to participate in international conflicts involving this nation.

To those nobles it had been a betrayal by their own citizens, but the adventurers themselves almost unanimously backed the guildmaster. A few who had based themselves in the north had mocked the decision, but anybody who had seen the shattered remains of the Kingdom's army realized that the stories were no exaggeration. Between taking the insults of some nobles and becoming enemies of the Sorcerer King, the choice was obvious.

With no battles to fight in the capital, the only job that Blue Rose accepted in months had been to exchange information on Jaldabaoth with the visiting paladins from the Holy Kingdom, where the demon had been rampaging. The paladins had tried to use the meeting as a pretense to request Blue Rose join the fight against Jaldabaoth, but they had promptly refused, instead directing them to Momon, who Evileye knew to be much stronger than themselves.

After they left, Evileye pressed Tia and Tina into focusing their information gathering on Momon and the Holy Kingdom. Shockingly, the news they received was neither of Momon's victory nor the paladins returning empty-handed, but that the Sorcerer King himself had personally gone to fight Jaldabaoth, and had been killed in the process. The news came from a merchant who had fled the Holy Kingdom when the invasion began, but lost everything to demihuman attacks along the road, only making it to the city of Re-Lobell with the tattered clothes on his back.

Tia and Tina tried to find further news or evidence, but there was nothing else, neither from the Sorcerous Kingdom nor from the Holy Kingdom. Furthermore, some of the demihuman armies who reportedly invaded the Holy Kingdom alongside Jaldabaoth now blockaded the road, staring down Re-Estize Kingdom's border fort between Re-Lobell and the Holy Kingdom.

Thankfully, they had not attacked the kingdom, so the Kingdom's response was to reinforce the fort, but not to attack, lest they poke a sleeping dragon. Like this, a further two months had passed under extreme tension, the entire kingdom hanging off a cliff by a single thread. Whether from the south or the east, an invasion could come at any moment, but Blue Rose could not act without first knowing which.

Then, they got the news: Not from their own information gathering, but instead from Climb, who Renner had sent to request their aid. From the mountains south of E-Rantel, several wandering Death Knights had crossed from the Katze Plains. Scouts confirmed they had been moving west while avoiding E-Rantel, but dared not fight the monsters. A single Death Knight was at least an even match for most adamantite-ranked adventurers in combat, if not superior.

Now, eleven of them marched on E-Pespel.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Part 1

"I apologize for calling you here so late at night, Lakyus" (Renner)

"No need to worry, Renner." (Lakyus)

Lakyus entered the princess's room, followed by Evileye, Gagaran, and the twins, Tia and Tina. The twins simultaneously nodded to greet the princess, while Gagaran gave her a hearty "Yo, princess!". Evileye simply walked past without a word, stopping in front of the table at the center of the room, where a map of the Re-Estize Kingdom was spread out.

Official maps were still in the process of being redrawn, but on this map the recent border changes had already been sketched out with painstaking care. South of E-Rantel, a series of pins connected by a red string drew a path from the Katze Plains, through the mountains, then followed Kingdom's side of the southern border with the Slane Theocracy, ending southeast of E-Pespel.

"If it's bad enough for you to call us like this, we don't have time to waste like this. Hurry up and start." (Evileye)

"You are correct, Evileye-san. As you have probably guessed, the path I have plotted on the map is the route the Death Knights have taken since they were first spotted. They were first discovered accidentally by a group of adventurers, after which we had our own scouts track their movements. They are traveling at a walking pace, and are expected to reach E-Pespel by the morning after tomorrow." (Renner)

"Have you confirmed whether or not they are from the Sorcerous Kingdom?" (Evileye)

"Unfortunately, we cannot be sure. They have been advancing almost single-mindedly since we started watching them, walking past multiple mountain villages without sparing a glance for the villagers. However, when one local noble gathered his soldiers to stop them, they immediately charged into battle, killing everybody who resisted. While we can say for certain that they are not ordinary undead, they are acting neither like invaders nor envoys, so we are yet unsure how to respond." (Renner)

"If they've attacked the noble's army, isn't that already enough to consider them monsters? What's to hesitate about?" (Gagaran)

"Think for a second, Gagaran. Thus far they have been walking without proactively attacking anybody. No natural undead would act like that." (Evileye)

"Indeed, while they have crossed our border, this does not necessarily mean they have declared war. However, if our Kingdom were to gather its army to repel the Death Knights, it would no longer be avoidable. Meanwhile, not attacking is equivalent to admitting we are unable to defend our own nation.

As we have no evidence that they truly are related to the Sorcerous Kingdom, they could simply deny any relation, evading any fault for crossing our border. Should we attack, they could instead name them peaceful travelers, giving them just cause to invade. No matter what choice we make, they hold the initiative." (Renner)

Renner's explanation caused Gagaran's expression to gradually darken, while Lakyus continued to listen carefully.

"How has the Kingdom responded thus far?" (Lakyus)

"Onii-sama is prepared to leave them be, if they continue as they are. However, if they stop at E-Pespel instead of continuing past, he will order them to defend the city." (Renner)

"So in the worst case, the Kingdom could be back at war two days from now?" (Evileye)

"If the situation continues as is, I believe that to be likely." (Renner)

"Seriously…?" (Gagaran)

"So, Renner, what do you need us to do?" (Lakyus)

"You wouldn't call us here without a plan. Let's hear it." (Evileye)

Though their tones were polar opposites, Lakyus and Evileye were fundamentally in agreement. Both knew of Renner's genius, and trusted that she had already come up with a solution to the impossible problem.

"It is as you say. While any organized response from the Kingdom would be a response to the provocation and could be taken as a declaration of war, this may not apply to isolated actions by small groups. Although the Adventurer's Guild would most likely refuse to give out a request to attack these Death Knights, nobody could be blamed should a party of adventurers coincidentally encounter the Death Knights and fight them." (Renner)

"Wouldn't us suddenly leaving the capital like that be more than enough to show that this isn't some convenient coincidence?" (Tia)

"Perhaps. However, that alone is not enough to prove that you did not act by your own decision. More importantly, in the past the Sorcerer King had accepted that Momon-sama's defiance was his own. As equal adamantite-ranked adventurers, I expect he would hold you to the same standard. For that to be the case, however, we cannot provide you any assistance. You would have to fight all those Death Knights with just the five of you." (Renner)

"Not a problem. They are relatively strong, but cannot begin to be compared to Jaldabaoth or his maids. They won't be a problem for me, and Lakyus should be fine. As for the other three, well, they should survive if they stick together." (Evileye)

"Oi, what's with the rude analysis, chibi-chan?" (Gagaran)

"If you don't like it, figure these things out yourself. Death Knights are individually stronger than you three, and they outnumber us. You may have physically recovered, but you haven't fought for months. Don't go overestimating yourselves and getting killed again." (Evileye)

"What, so you were worrying about us, but too shy to admit it? You should have just honestly said that!" (Gagaran)

"Oh, just shut up already, musclehead." (Evileye)

Their banter was interrupted by Renner, who was laughing at their act, prompting Evileye to sigh and sit down.

"Thank you all for your help. Truly, I cannot count how many times you have all saved us. I'm truly sorry that I could not think of a better solution, one which did not require you to shoulder the fate of our kingdom like this." (Renner)

"Don't worry about it, Renner. We're friends, aren't we? You saved us with the warning about E-Rantel, we'd be glad to pay back the favor." (Lakyus)

Exchanging some final pleasantries, Blue Rose set off for E-Pespel, racing off in the middle of the night. Renner wished them luck, smiling and waving to them as they exited, Gagaran closing the door behind herself. The moment the door closed, Renner's smile distorted.

_They really did leave like you p__romised__, right on schedule. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Albedo-sama, Demiurge-sama. Now, I only need to do my part._

"Stall Blue Rose?" (Tanya)

"That is correct. You are to get the adamantite adventurer party, Blue Rose, out of the Re-Estize Kingdom, and delay them for some time. Two weeks should be sufficient, but they should be back by the end of the third. During this time, you must prevent them from returning to or making contact with the kingdom. However, you are forbidden from killing them or taking any action which would result in war against the kingdom. Besides that, you may act as you wish, so long as the mission is accomplished." (Demiurge)

Tanya quickly began to think through the contents of the mountains of documents she had been provided, which she had been tasked with reading over the past few weeks, alongside her combat practice with the Pleiades. The vast archives of knowledge that Demiurge had collected through months of dedicated effort.

She had read up on everything from the history and legends of the world, the geography of the surrounding countries, the relative threat assessment of each country, and of course, the identities of royalty, nobles, and adventurers. At her request, Ainz had ordered Demiurge to provide her every bit of information he had about Nazarick's past, present, and future plans, which she had spared no effort to memorize down to the letter.

"May I ask what resources are available to me?" (Tanya)

She began by confirming the details with him. Her plans if she were to act alone would be completely different from if she had access to direct support from somebody like Demiurge.

"Should you require assistance, you may request it, and to some degree it will be provided to you. However, do take care not to interfere with our other objectives. I should not need to remind you to keep the cost and benefit to Nazarick at the core of your plans." (Demiurge)

"Of course, Demiurge-sama. In that case, I would like to take…" (Tanya)

"Dammit, what the hell is with these things?" (Gagaran)

"Gagaran, you're getting surrounded, fall back!" (Lakyus)

Despite being the one giving the warning, Lakyus was similarly being pressed back, having to constantly retreat to avoid being surrounded by the Death Knights herself. All their plans for the fight had long since broken down. They had expected the undead to charge them and get in each other's way, but instead they were being cautiously surrounded, each Death Knight perfectly covering those next to it.

"[Middle Magic Shield]! [Maximize Magic: Crystal Lance]!" (Evileye)

Even the one who had been confident in her ability to outclass the Death Knights was being pressed back by three of them, who were taking turns defending in sequence, preventing Evileye from being able to break through their great tower shields to deal any actual damage. At the same time, they would move to surround her, attacking from behind whenever she tried to focus her attack on one of them. Her strongest penetrating attacks were doing damage, but it would not be enough to defeat them all before running out of mana.

"Oi, chibi-chan, you said they wouldn't be a problem for you, so where has that confidence of yours gone?" (Gagaran)

"They have some kind of enhancement magic, but I can't identify it. Definitely not just 1st or 2nd tier, probably at least 4th. From how they're fighting, they might also be under the command of something, but none of them stands out as being superior to the others." (Evileye)

Evileye provided her analysis while continuing to fight the three Death Knights, taking advantage of her many decades of experience against all sorts of enemies to guess at their nature. That she could remain calm against the sort of enemies which radiated an aura of fear spoke of her capability, but even she was not without wounds, and was steadily being worn down.

"What should we do, Evileye? Do you think we should retreat?" (Lakyus)

"It'd be good if we could, but they might not let us. If it were just you and me, I could carry you away using [Fly], but not the rest. Even if we the two of us tried to buy time for the rest of you to run, half of them would get past. They wouldn't make it." (Evileye)

"So, what? You two should just run. Just come back and resurrect us later. It's better than getting wiped out here." (Gagaran)

Gagaran's words were confident, but Lakyus didn't miss Gagaran gripping her great war pick to stop her shaking hands. She was prepared to die again if it meant the party surviving, but Evileye's next words broke her resolve.

"It won't be that simple. Death Knights immediately turn anybody they kill into a zombie. If it were legendary [Resurrection] magic it would still be fine, but Lakyus's [Raise Dead] won't work on somebody that damaged. You dying here means real death." (Evileye)

"So we're screwed, then?" (Gagaran)

"It's all the oni boss's fault, then?" (Tia)

"Our only choice is to keep fighting and hope somebody comes to save us. That said, Renner made it clear she wouldn't be able to send help, not that I think the Kingdom has anybody left who can fight these if we can't beat them…" (Lakyus)

"Ah, if only Momon-sama could be here to save me…" (Evileye)

"You're seriously in love to be thinking of him even now, Evileye. There's no way he'd even know we're here, not to mention the undead king letting him-" (Gagaran)

Before Gagaran could finish her sentence, an explosion out of nowhere consumed the two of the Death Knights which were pressuring her. A third, which had been in the process of attacking Evileye from behind, was crushed into the ground by the figure which crashed into it from the sky at great speed.

"Momon-sama!" (Evileye)

"Are you kidding me, seriously!?" (Gagaran)

Responding to the impact, the remaining Death Knights backed away from the Blue Roses, raising their swords and shields against the intruder. Not missing the chance, Evileye moved to regroup with the others. The dust began to clear, but the figure revealed was not the pitch-black hero she had hoped to see. Instead, what had landed on the Death Knight appeared no taller than herself.

The figure wore only some light armor, a decorated vest over leather armor covered with brilliant green scales, except for a large boot made of a dark metal. In its hands was a short, gray, metal staff, which it pointed in the direction of the Death Knights. Behind it extended a silver-white tail tipped by a triangular blade, like the point of a harpoon.

The Death Knight turned landing pad was apparently not yet destroyed, as it raised its remaining arm to grab at the figure standing on its crushed torso. Without bothering to even look at the enemy, the figure trivially used its tail to impale the Death Knight's head, after which it crumbled into black dust. The figure lightly hopped onto the ground, never once sparing a glance for the monster.

"You've all been a real nuisance, running away from me for so long… Obediently crumble into dust." (Tanya)

* * *

Part 2

The exhausted Blue Rose looked at the small demon, which began to clean up the Death Knights as if they were mere pests. With each shot from its staff, it would fire magic blasts at the Death Knights, piercing them shield, armor, and all. Frozen by this display of force, the first to recover was Gagaran.

"Hey, Evileye, hasn't your Momon-sama shrunk quite a bit?" (Gagaran)

"What the hell is that? One of Jaldabaoth's kin? No, there was nobody like that among his maids. He shouldn't have hard the leisure to hold back this kind of force when he was cornered by Momon-sama in the capital." (Evileye)

Without even hearing Gagaran's joke, Evileye kept talking to herself, desperately trying to identify the newcomer. This was different from when she and Momon's partner Nabe were toyed with by Jaldabaoth's maids. No, this was the sort of panic she hadn't felt since they had encountered Jaldabaoth himself.

"Evileye! Do you know what that is?" (Lakyus)

Lakyus grabbed Evileye from behind, pulling her away to break her out of her rambling. Gagaran and the twins readied their weapons while backing up, not yet sure of whether they would fight or flee. Meanwhile, the demon fired its last shot, scattering the final Death Knight into black dust. They had spent a full hour fighting to defeat a single one of the Death Knights, but in less than a minute, it had singlehandedly wiped out the rest, all without taking a single step. Next, it turned its staff towards them.

"Now then, all that's left is… What are you?" (Tanya)

The demon now stood a few meters in front of them, tilting its head in confusion or curiosity, all while aiming the staff towards them. In response, Gagaran jumped forwards, aiming for the first strike. As if bored, the demon just raised its left hand towards her.

Gagaran's war pick struck a sphere which appeared between them, bouncing back with a high-pitched ringing sound, as if she had struck some crystal. Uninterested in the attack, the demon shrugged, then raised its staff with one hand towards Gagaran while muttering to itself.

"I wasn't particularly interested in you lot, but if you're hostile, I suppose I'll kill you off after all." (Tanya)

"Stop!" (Evileye)

Evileye jumped forward, trying to get in front of Gagaran, but knew she wouldn't reach in time. Surprisingly though, the demon just lowered its weapon and looked towards her, mildly irritated.

"What is it? If you're trying to ambush me while talking, could you just give it up? It's annoying." (Tanya)

"No, the crest on that armor, are you perhaps the Sorcerer King…-sama's subject?" (Evileye)

Evileye directed the other members' attention to the demon's armor, the light-gray vest which was indeed emblazoned with the emblem of Nazarick in a deep red.

"So you knew that much when you chose to attack me? Are you perhaps suicidal?" (Tanya)

"I apologize for my comrade's rudeness. We could not recognize that crest, so Gagaran must have believed you to be a subordinate of Jaldabaoth, who had previously killed her." (Lakyus)

Lakyus was the next to step forward, trying to explain the situation to the demon while defending Gagaran.

"Ahhh… I heard from Momon-dono that we look somewhat similar, as well. It can't be helped then, I'll forget what you tried to do. So, once again, what are you lot?" (Tanya)

"We are the adamantite-ranked adventurer team, Blue Rose. Please call me Lakyus." (Lakyus)

Lakyus reached under her armor and pulled out an adamantite plate which served as an adventurer's identity. Taking the hint, the others each took theirs out, naming themselves in sequence.

"Oh, you're the team with the…" (Tanya)

Tanya momentarily passed an appraising glance over at Evileye, before looking back to Lakyus.

"Well, alright then. Since it appears we will be working together for some time, I will introduce myself as well. You may call me Tanya." (Tanya)

"_Tanya_? But that's…" (Evileye)

"Working together? What do you mean by that?" (Lakyus)

Evileye and Lakyus responded to different part of the demon's introduction. While Evileye caught herself and stopped before finishing the sentence, she had correctly noticed that _Tanya wasn't a demon's name_. Names were of vital importance to demons, being the identity which allowed them to manifest in the world. The mere act of lying about its name was enough for a demon to lose its physical body and vanish. Even Demiurge was only able to act under the name 'Jaldabaoth' because that was in a way also his name, as had been written into his character description by Ulbert. Both names referred to the same demon, which had allowed that particular bit of deception to work.

While it was rarely possible for a demon to have two names, it was not possible for two demons to have the same name. Any demon which possessed a name was unique, powerful, and proud of that name. If by some extraordinary coincidence Demiurge ever encountered a human who shared his name, he would without hesitation kill that human, no matter where they were. This was part of the nature of demons, and the reason they usually had such unusual names.

Despite this nature, the demon girl in front of her had clearly named herself as 'Tanya', so that must really be its name. However, it was simply not possible for any demon with such a common name to ever appear. Far too many other beings would share the name for it to work as a unique identifier, so the demon would never be able to manifest itself in the physical world. Yet, here was such a demon.

Understanding this contradiction, Evileye realized what it must mean about the origin of the demon in front of her. However, fearing the possibility that this might be a delicate issue and provoke Tanya into killing her, Evileye shut herself up before finishing.

Unbeknownst to Evileye, Tanya herself was not actually aware of this naming contradiction, so her not saying anything saved both of them an awkward misunderstanding. Tanya, not noticing the importance of the comment, ignored her and only responded to Lakyus.

"I thought you'd want to, but I won't force you… How much do you know about these Death Knights? Where did they come from?" (Tanya)

"… We believed them to be naturally spawned undead, who had crossed the mountains from the Katze Plains to get here." (Lakyus)

"Don't be ridiculous. As if this level of undead could ever naturally spawn in these numbers." (Tanya)

Lakyus stuck with the story Renner had provided, playing dumb about the Death Knights. Adventurers would not be allowed to attack undead which were part of the Sorcerous Kingdom, so they had to have believed them to be natural undead to not have violated that rule. That she could remember to lie in front of the overwhelmingly powerful Tanya was a credit to her own discipline as an adventurer.

To her surprise, Tanya immediately admitted that they were summoned undead. With this the Sorcerous Kingdom would no longer be able to claim they were simply undead which spawned in the Katze Plains, and in the worst case, they could be considered the aggressors who had sent forces across the border of a country with which they had a truce. Lakyus couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"Do you mean to say that those Death Knights were sent here by the Sorcerer King?" (Evileye)

"Stop jumping to conclusions. If Ainz-sama wanted to invade your kingdom, he would simply do it, not waste time by sending such small-fry. I said they weren't natural undead, but they are not Ainz-sama's undead. I more or less know what was commanding them, but who sent that thing is another story. Whoever that entity is, they are the ones trying to invade your kingdom while making us look like the aggressors." (Tanya)

"That's bullshit, why should we believe anything you said? Your Sorcerer King has an army of those Death Knights, and you expect us to think there's another being which could create so many of those, yet conveniently only starts acting now, at the same time as you all come out of your tomb?" (Gagaran)

Gagaran yelled to answer Tanya's explanation, which had been delivered entirely in a sarcastic and mocking tone. Tanya ignored the provocation, shrugged, and continued in the exact same tone.

"I don't really care if you believe me or not, in the end it hardly matters. You need me to save your country much more than I'd like your assistance, after all. Like I already said, I know what created the Death Knights, what I'm interested in is what sent _it_." (Tanya)

"Your Death Knights are already all dead, why would we-" (Gagaran)

"Do you really think you could destroy a Dracolich with just the five of you?" (Tanya)

"What… did you just say?" (Evileye)

"You want several Death Knights and a relatively strong undead which is capable of creating and controlling other undead, all of which should be disposable?" (Ainz)

"That is correct, Ainz-sama." (Tanya)

Demiurge, unable to answer this kind of request himself, had instead directed Tanya to Ainz himself. He paused for a moment to consider his skills before answering.

"The Death Knights are plentiful, however the other part is more difficult. If you are in need of a capable commander which strengthens its minions, then a Crypt Lord would work. However, it would have to be summoned with YGGDRASIL gold, so I would prefer not to use it if you intend to discard it in the process. Aside from that… I believe a Dracolich would fit your description, however as I have not had a use for one up until now, I have not tried creating one. Still, I suppose we do have those Frost Dragon corpses lying around… Demiurge, where are those Frost Dragons now?" (Ainz)

"Yes. The majority of the Frost Dragons have obediently accepted Ainz-sama's rule, however there was one among the younger dragons who tried to resist. As punishment, we have been applying the same method we had been using to collect skin for low-level scrolls on it. Some of Cocytus's subordinates have been regularly cutting off its limbs, processing them into materials, then healing the wounds to repeat the process. As a result, we now have several storehouses full of Frost Dragon scales, skin, bones, bones, and meat.

While they are not nearly the level of the Ancient Dragon materials which Ainz-sama is familiar with, we have been able to replicate 5th tier scrolls using their skin and blood. I believe it may be possible to create a Dracolich if we were to gather enough of those replicated bones in one place." (Demiurge)

Demiurge's explanation caused Tanya to grimace at the torture which made Federation 'communication' sound mild. He did not comment, whether it was because she was behind him and he did not notice, or perhaps he simply accepted it as a former human's reaction. Ainz reacted in much the same way as Tanya, but his lack of facial expressions let him hide it.

"… Is that so. Good work coming up with such a method for producing materials. We will go with your idea. Go get those bones, and deliver my thanks to Cocytus while you're at it." (Ainz)

"We are unworthy of your praise, Ainz-sama. I will deliver your message and return shortly with the materials for your experiment." (Demiurge)

Demiurge bowed deeply to Ainz, then activated the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to teleport to the fifth floor. Ainz and Tanya were left alone in the throne room.

"… Ainz, you're doing some really disturbing things down here, aren't you…" (Tanya)

"Don't say it. I didn't know he was doing that, either…" (Ainz)

"Oi, Evileye, what the hell is she talking about?" (Gagaran)

"The Dracolich is a legendary undead last seen almost 200 years ago. It appeared suddenly, gathering an army of undead from the Katze Plains. After that, it flew to the Slane Theocracy, devastating a city, their armies powerless to resist it. Finally, it flew north towards the mountains, and was never seen again.

Some say it angered the Platinum Dragon Lord and was destroyed, others that it had been sleeping in the mountains ever since. Neither was ever proven, but if what she says is true, we just learned the answer." (Evileye)

"Just like in the past, it suddenly appeared a week ago and attacked E-Rantel. However, Momon-dono stopped its attack, driving it off and heavily injuring it. Still, it escaped, and is now in hiding in a mountainside cave south of E-Rantel. Since Momon-dono cannot leave E-Rantel for too long, we cannot have him spend his time searching through caves. Instead, I was sent to destroy it, but found that it had created a pack of Death Knights and sent them towards your city, trying to turn it into an army of squire zombies to use against us." (Tanya)

"As expected of Momon-sama." (Evileye)

"If such a legendary undead really has awakened, we have to go warn the Kingdom" (Lakyus)

"Warn them and do what? Does the kingdom have an army of soldiers at least as strong as you hidden somewhere? The Dracolich can use the 7th tier spell [Undeath Army] to turn every nearby corpse into an undead. You're each strong enough to at least fight against it, but if you send the kingdom's army against it, forget being useless, they'd be creating enemies for us." (Tanya)

"She's right. That spell is the same one which turned every body in the E-Rantel's cemetery into an undead, the incident Momon-sama resolved. I don't know if the Dracolich can really use that level of magic, but it wouldn't surprise me." (Evileye)

"That doesn't change that we could at least get them to evacuate the city." (Lakyus)

"I've already spent too long tracking down those Death Knights, time it spent recovering. Any longer and it'll get its full strength back, by then there will be nothing I can do about it anymore. As it stands, I'm not certain I could win alone anymore, which is why I want your help to destroy it. With its minions dead, next it'll come out and personally raze your cities to build its armies. Waste any more time warning them, and there won't be anywhere left to evacuate to. If you understand, let's get going. Meet up at the foot of the first mountain southwest of E-Rantel." (Tanya)

Declaring the conversation to be over and refusing any further argument, Tanya turned around, activating her the flight gear and jumping into the air. From the air, she gave Blue Rose another glance, then flew off in the direction of E-Rantel.

"Dammit. We can't leave that sort of monster to recover. If delaying costs us her support, we can't afford it. Call your mounts and catch up, I'll go on ahead. [Fly]." (Evileye)

With Tanya flying considerably slower than normal, Evileye was able to catch up before long. The other four watched her fly off in disbelief.

"I didn't think she would rush off like that. What's gotten into her?" (Gagaran)

"I don't know, but it's possible she knows more about the Dracolich than just what the stories say. Maybe it had something to do with how she became who she is now. I don't intend to pry, for now we should just trust her." (Lakyus)

"Are we really going along with this?" (Tia)

"The kingdom's still in a mess from the war. If they get attacked again now, they'll get wiped out for real. If now is our best chance to stop it, we have to take it, even if it means trusting that demon." (Gagaran)

"Agreed. Let's follow them." (Lakyus)

Lakyus and Gagaran each took out a decorated whistle, which they blew into. As they did, the whistles shattered, and in their place great warhorses rose from the ground. The whistles were rare and expensive items that Blue Rose had held onto for years, yet Evileye had told them to use it, indicating just how much of an emergency she thought this was.

The horses would obey them for 24 hours, and while they were not as fast as Sleipnirs, they could carry the massive-framed Gagaran in her full-plate adamantium armor without slowing down much, something completely impossible for any non-magical mount. Lakyus and Gagaran each mounted the horse, while both twins got on behind Lakyus.

"Even with the three of us, Gagaran's horse is the one struggling. Poor horse." (Tina)

The two horses rushed off after Tanya and Evileye, following the long road to E-Rantel. For the next day, they rode without rest, arriving at the foot of the mountains shortly after them. They got off the horses as they vanished back into earth, greeting an annoyed Tanya and an exhausted Evileye.

"This monster… Who can keep flying for an entire day without pausing or even breaking a sweat…" (Evileye)

Evileye was sitting on the ground hugging her knees, grumbling complaints. Immediately following a fight to the death against Death Knights, she had been almost forcibly taken cross-country flying. Even with her innate ability to fly much more easily than with [Fly] magic alone, she had been using it continuously for an entire day without being allowed a break, maintaining her full speed for the entire distance. Even her inhuman mana supply would be naturally be depleted by such a nonsensical feat. Tia and Tina were staring at such an Evileye with amazed expressions.

"We're here. So, where is this cave?" (Lakyus)

"Up, obviously. No magic from here on, either, or it might detect us and flee. Rejoice, we're going mountain climbing!" (Tanya)

Ignoring the expressions of utter despair from the completely drained Blue Roses, Tanya gave a demonic smile.

* * *

Part 3

Nearly three days had passed since Blue Rose had left the capital, during which they had been running, fighting, riding, and flying continuously without rest. Only Lakyus, Tia, and Tina had gotten a bit of rough sleep by taking turns guiding the magic horse.

All pleas for mercy were promptly rejected. When Lakyus tried to argue that climbing a mountain while so exhausted was too dangerously, Tanya simply responded by saying,

"You who call yourself adamantite-ranked would balk at something as simple as this? Do you truly believe you could ever fight alongside Momon-dono with that kind of attitude?" (Tanya)

The argument honestly didn't make any sense, but Evileye practically jumped up to get ready. It was then that Lakyus realized just how perfectly this demon had them dancing on the palm of her hand. Having already agreed once, when Evileye told them to hurry up and start climbing, she couldn't do anything but sigh and accept it.

Just as promised, neither Tanya nor Evileye were using flight magic, climbing the mountain using just physical strength. Despite this, the pair of 'Magic Casters' had the physical strength of literal demons. Even without any enhancement magic to strengthen themselves, both were practically hopping up the mountainside. To the horror of the other four, both clearly expected them to be keeping up with their speed as they ran along the precarious cliffs.

In truth, Tanya's raw physical strength wasn't actually too special. With a demon's body, she was easily stronger than ordinary humans, but without using a support formula to strengthen her muscles, she was hardly heroic. Unlike Evileye, she couldn't beat Lakyus or Gagaran in a contest of plain strength. Unfortunately, this technicality wasn't of much consolation to them: Between her military training and mountaineering experience, she could take full advantage of her lightweight body to effectively run up cliffs without a single misstep.

"Hah… Our oni leader is plenty evil for dragging us into this mission, but she's on a different level altogether… Damn oni demon… How did she train our Evileye so quickly…" (Tina)

"Hahhh… hahhh… What are you… complaining about… why don't you… try carrying my armor…" (Gagaran)

"Good luck, Gagaran. Only a Gagaran could climb a mountain looking like that." (Tia)

They were out of breath. Of the four, Gagaran was clearly the one suffering the most, given that she had to climb while still wearing her full-plate armor and carrying the massive war pick on her back. The twins were joking about it, but they were still helping to pick out routes for her, letting Gagaran focus on just continuing to climb.

For all their complaints, they were keeping up with Tanya and Evileye surprisingly well. Even exhausted, they had the strength, stamina, and willpower of adamantite-ranked adventurers, worthy of being called heroes in their own right. It helped that when mapping out routes up the mountain, Tanya had picked out safer but slower routes, but without any experience, they wouldn't be able to recognize that they were being intentionally delayed.

The mountains they were climbing, usually just referred to as the 'E-Rantel Mountains' for the sake of simplicity, were considered by the Adventurer's Guild to be the site for mithril-ranked job at the bare minimum, though most involving monsters were orichalcum-ranked jobs. While the monsters involved were in isolation only gold-ranked in strength, the harsh environment meant that even a party of orichalcum-ranked adventurers couldn't afford to let their guard down.

It was therefore a silver lining for the gravely exhausted members of Blue Rose that Evileye and Tanya were leading the climb. To those two who could just ignore the supposedly harsh environment, even with their magic sealed, mere gold-ranked monsters were less than insects. So, they continued to climb relatively unharassed.

Without a doubt, all six of them had set at least a few world records with this climb. Although, the way they were going about it would have made any professional climber yell, "Are you mocking mountain climbing!?" at the top of their lungs. Fortunately for Tanya, in this world where mountains were home to wolves, trolls, giants, and dragons, nobody was suicidal enough to be a professional mountain climber. She narrowly avoided adding them to her already long list of enemies.

At long last, after six hours of climbing, Lakyus climbed up a cliff to find Tanya and Evileye already waiting, but not progressing further. In front of them, a massive frozen cave opened up, no less than ten meters across, extending into the darkness to an unknown depth. Behind her, Tia, Tina, and Gagaran similarly climbed up, then paused for a bit of rest.

"We've arrived. Evileye, do you have some magic to confirm that it's inside here?" (Tanya)

"No, that sort of thing is Lakyus's specialty. You can do it, right?" (Evileye)

"Yes, there is a 2nd tier divine magic spell, [Detect Undead]. However, the Dracolich will immediately know we are here if I use it." (Lakyus)

"Don't worry about it. Go ahead." (Tanya)

"Alright. [Detect Undead]… Nothing?" (Lakyus)

"Ah, looks like it really did move. I thought that might be the case." (Tanya)

Every member of Blue Rose simultaneously had a very bad premonition.

"Oi… What do you mean by that? You don't mean…" (Gagaran)

"Of course, it knows that I'm hunting it. I would have been more surprised if it didn't relocate after its Death Knights were destroyed." (Tanya)

"So where is it now?" (Lakyus)

"Like I said before, it's in a mountain cave. This mountain range has fourty-three caves large enough for a Dracolich to hide in. If it's not here, we just have to try the next cave." (Tanya)

"That cave wouldn't happen to be…" (Gagaran)

As if it were entirely natural, Tanya gestured over to the mountain south of them.

"Of course, it's on the reverse side of that mountain there. Let's go." (Tanya)

Having heard their death sentence, Gagaran, Tia, Tina, and even Lakyus collapsed to their knees.

"Well, I'd like to say that, but it looks like you really are getting to your limit. Besides, it's already too dark for you to be able to see, isn't it? We'll stop to rest here, be ready to depart at first light. Evileye and I will stay and watch for monsters." (Tanya)

Without saying another word to even complain, the four who had been given their temporary stay of execution just huddled together to sleep. Their eyes dead, they wrapped themselves in Gagaran's large cloak as a makeshift blanket to stave off the cold and get a precious few hours of rest.

Though she would not learn about it for many months, Tanya's mountain climbing excursion was being monitored by Ainz and Demiurge, who had been curious as to what her plan was. Her ability to break the Blue Roses' will in a way that even Demiurge had not been able to, all without using a single point of MP, had accidentally raised her evaluation in the Archdevil's eyes. Satisfied, they stopped monitoring her there, at Ainz's request.

While the other members of Blue Rose collapsed from their exhaustion, Tanya was busy building a campfire at the entrance of the cave. Although her armor was light and thin, it was no less effective at blocking the cold than modern winter equipment. This was one of the properties of the Emerald Dragonscale Armor, which provided all sorts of elemental resistances in addition to its exceptional defense, appropriate for its legendary class.

However, nighttime in these mountains was said to freeze any living being, and while that might be an exaggeration, Tanya saw no harm to taking measures against exposure. Even if she had a naturally high resistance to fire, cold was much more of a concern, plus she had to make sure her companions (luggage) didn't die.

In reality, the target they were 'hunting' would never move: She already knew it was in the 32nd cave they would check. No matter how much magic they used, it would never detect them, she just needed an excuse to stop Evileye from flying to each cave to check, or teleporting home to make early contact with the kingdom. Thankfully Lakyus had told her that [Detect Undead] would also get a reaction from the undead, so she would have to make sure the Dracolich responds to it once they arrive at the real cave.

Since the beginning, the Death Knights and Dracolich had been under her control, following her mental orders to play the foil in her grand stage production. The Death Knights would never have killed them, they just had to show off her strength. The fight between Momon and the Dracolich at E-Rantel had actually happened, so in case they tried to verify that at some point, everybody in the city would repeat her story. It further helped to boost Momon's reputation as a hero and defender of the city, killing several birds with one stone.

From here on, she just had to keep killing time by dragging them up each mountain in sequence, which should take up no less than the required 2 weeks. She would give them only the bare minimum rest time to make it through another day of climbing, keeping them too exhausted to think straight, just hoping that the next cave they reached would be the right one, continuing to climb mountains like zombies.

So long as they didn't think too hard about the schedule, her mission would be finished without an issue. Just as planned, the threat of a legendary undead from ancient times rampaging in the kingdom was enough to drag them in. Now, their pride as adamantite-ranked adventurers wouldn't let them quit without having even found their enemy, especially given that Tanya and Evileye were doing fine. If it were only her, she couldn't be certain, which is why she was thankful for Evileye's predictable behavior and bottomless stamina.

As Tanya was building up a small bonfire and thinking about her plans from here on, Evileye sat down across the fire from here, having made sure her companions were properly wrapped up.

"Hey. You used to be human, didn't you?" (Evileye)

This was unexpected. Tanya wasn't sure how she had figured it out, nor whether to affirm or deny it. After a brief pause to think, she decided honestly answering would be safer than trying to deny it and losing any trust she might have earned.

"You're right… and what of it?" (Tanya)

"For the Sorcerer King to have forced not only the noble Momon-sama into subordination, but also be turning turning children into war demons-" (Evileye)

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't apply your convenient misinterpretation to the situation. Nobody forced me into this, I serve Ainz-sama by my own choice." (Tanya)

"Why would you do something like that? If you gave up your humanity for that power, then…" (Evileye)

_Ah, looks like I misunderstood her intentions. She wasn't just following along like an idiot, but rather she came along for this. Looks like making a mistake here really would turn her hostile __and really mess up my plans. __Agreeing is out of the question, but she wouldn't believe me if I outright deny it. __In that case, I need to take back control of the conversation._

"… Are you asking that speaking from personal experience, Landfall?" (Tanya)

"…" (Evileye)

_Hm. I was hoping for more of a reaction with that, but if she's not responding to that much, I'll keep pressing._

"Not going to deny it?" (Tanya)

"I suspected you all might already know. Lying about it now won't change what you think." (Evileye)

With a sigh, Evileye took off her mask and pulled down her hood, revealing her bright red eyes.

"Ainz-sama counts a true vampire among his subordinates. They could smell you from the next city over." (Tanya)

_As if Shalltear would care about somebody like her, vampire or not. Renner was the one who told us, confirmed by what Demiurge heard as Jaldabaoth, but this excuse should throw her off their trail._

"… Is that so?" (Evileye)

"To answer your previous question… I did not stop being human seeking this combat power. I hate war more than almost anything else." (Tanya)

"Then why would you serve that monster? He's already destroyed one kingdom, and shows no sign of stopping! How can you agree to serve something like that!?" (Evileye)

"Calm down and let your companions sleep. I agree that was an unfortunate waste, but your kingdom is just as liable for responding to provocation. Do you really believe that the king had no choice but to go to war? He never even attempted to negotiate with Ainz-sama, nor so much as speak to him. At that point, we could only perform a show of force. No fool will start a war they have no hope of winning, which Ainz-sama personally made clear.

Now that they know they can't just treat us as monsters and attack, they will be much more willing to negotiate on even grounds. Emperor Jircniv understood this, and negotiated for the future of his own country. Now, Ainz-sama has guaranteed the safety and prosperity of the Empire, without a single sacrifice.

Ainz-sama does not wish for meaningless bloodshed. That is why he opposes Jaldabaoth, and came to the aid of the Holy Kingdom. I accepted this authority because with it, I can help Ainz-sama create that world. That is the peace I was willing to give up my humanity for." (Tanya)

Evileye was dumbfounded. She had tried to interrupt Tanya on multiple occasions, but each time Tanya cut her off by answering the argument before she could even say it. Evileye couldn't accept that the same being who would mercilessly slaughter some 180,000 soldiers could be anything except an evil god. She couldn't believe it, yet she couldn't refute any part of it. She couldn't deny Tanya's determination.

"Well, if you don't believe me, why don't you just ask him yourself?" (Tanya)

"Huh?" (Evileye)

Her thoughts were once again interrupted by Tanya's comment. Evileye definitely didn't have the authority to invite a potential enemy to speak with Princess Renner, let alone the king himself. Yet, she suggested it all too casually.

"Once this is all over, come to E-Rantel and ask Ainz-sama about it yourself. He's a lot nicer than you think." (Tanya)

"So the Sorcerer King really is still alive?" (Evileye)

_Ah, crap. I wasn't supposed to say that. I want to tear off this useless mouth of mine. __I'm seriously screwed __if they rush back to report this now, but as long as __they're delayed __as planned__, Demiurge should allow the news to spread himself anyway. __For now, I can't let her find out it's a secret._

"Did the news not reach you yet? Ainz-sama defeated Jaldabaoth in the Holy Kingdom. They're still clearing out the last of the demihuman armies, but I'd have thought it already got through to your kingdom." (Tanya)

"Jaldabaoth is really dead?" (Evileye)

"Yeah. Sorry if you were hoping for revenge, but we couldn't allow him to keep rampaging any longer." (Tanya)

"No, you're right. I couldn't have defeated him myself anyway…" (Evileye)

For a while, the two sat quietly, both watching the fire between them. The first to break the silence was Tanya.

"Do you blame yourself for failing to stop Jaldabaoth before he could attack the capital?" (Tanya)

"Why are you bringing something like that up now?" (Evileye)

"You picked a fight with Jaldabaoth's maid, but lacked the strength to defeat Jaldabaoth himself. After that, or perhaps because of that, Jaldabaoth invaded the capital, killing or capturing some ten thousand civilians… Yet now that you learned he was killed, you regret having missed the chance to atone for your mistake, don't you?" (Tanya)

"But that's…" (Evileye)

This wasn't an idle question, it was a verbal attack. Even if she had never considered that line of thought before, Tanya's interpretation would worm itself into her head. Each word was picked to build a guilt for her own powerlessness, and a desire to make up for getting those people killed. This was not the effect of some magic, but simple persuasion, intentionally delivered moments after her comments about Ainz would disturb her assumptions. Having given her a break to begin doubting her worldviews, Tanya had interrupted to drive in another nail.

There was no endearing heart-to-heart between two uncertain enemies. From the start to the end, this was Tanya's mental attack, carefully designed to turn the girl into her sympathetic supporter. After this, she just needed to provide the method to her, one which would serve her interests.

"You're underestimating the value of your own position, misunderstanding the power you've gained when you had your own humanity taken away. There is no need for you to work as a monster hunting mercenary to save people. Instead, reveal your situation, and show them that it is possible for humans and non-humans to integrate. If that helps them to accept Ainz-sama's rule, we can end this without ever fighting another war. Those people, only you can save." (Tanya)

Evileye didn't respond. She just sat, watching the fire while listening to Tanya's offer. The mental wound had been opened, now Tanya just needed to let it fester. She stood up, walking around the side of the fire, putting one hand on Evileye's shoulder and leaning close to her.

"It's okay. Sleep on it. I'll take the watch until morning." (Tanya)

She turned away from Evileye, picked up her rifle, and walked out of the cave.

* * *

Part 4

As promised, the next morning Tanya forced everybody up after barely five hours of sleep, just as the first rays of the sun passed over a gap between two mountains. When Blue Rose first departed the capital, they had never expected to be away for more than a couple days, nor were they planning on climbing mountains. As a result, they were forced to rely on the travel rations provided by Tanya, of which she carried a nearly inexhaustible supply in her Magic Bag.

Once their short break for breakfast was over, they were led down the mountain and up the next one, checking the cave for the Dracolich – which of course was not there – before repeating the process. Tanya had expected the cold to be more of a problem, but the mountains were unexpectedly warm during the day, and everybody present had at least some cold resistance equipment, so they would at least not freeze to death.

Neither Evileye nor Tanya brought up the topic again, but she had gone back to wearing her mask. Unlike the first day, she was no longer rushing forward, instead matching the slower pace of the rest of Blue Rose, lowering the overall pace of the party. Adjusting to the new pace, Tanya changed their route to move the real cave up a few places so their trip would have the same overall duration.

The days dragged on, repeating this sequence of events each morning. Depending on the distance between the caves, they would get through anywhere between two and four caves per day, steadily working their way from the north end of the mountain range towards the south.

The relationship between Blue Rose and Tanya gradually improved, if only slightly. It was hardly what any sensible person would call friendship, but they could at least talk casually and trust each others' abilities. Instead of just handing out rations at dawn and dusk then leaving them alone, Tanya would join them to eat together around a fire every time they spent a night in one of the caves. Though her body no longer required food, the habit stuck around, so she went ahead and indulged it when given the chance.

From the second day onward, Evileye got much quieter than usual, not speaking except when necessary to give an order or warning. Concerned about their companion, the other members of Blue Rose tried to ask her about it, but she turned them away, wanting to be left alone. Thinking it was related to the Dracolich and her past, Lakyus accepted it, as did the other three.

Eleven days after they had started up the first mountain, exactly two weeks after they left the capital chasing after the Death Knights, they reached the last cave. Originally 32nd in sequence, now the 29th cave, they reached it shortly after noon. Like every other before it, Lakyus activated her magic at the entrance, expecting another dud. As she did, she opened her mouth to yell a warning, but before she could, a dry roar shook the mountain.

"We actually found it?" (Tia)

"It's 200 meters down and getting closer! One minute until it gets here!" (Lakyus)

"Get back. It may not be much, but I'll take the first strike." (Tanya)

As she raised the rifle, the cyan formula which began to visibly form in front of her spread not only in front of her sights, but grew like a complex circuit, filling the space in a meter-wide sphere in front of the barrel. Over the next 30 seconds, the magical circuitry reconstructed itself, collapsing into a glowing white cylinder centered around the barrel, slightly wider than the gun itself.

"Close your eyes and cover your ears." (Tanya)

Nobody dared to hesitate. For a few seconds, their vision was dyed white even through their eyelids. The roar it released was a full order of magnitude greater than that of the Dracolich, as if they came from a pair of competing animals. Calculating just by the amount of raw magic power put into the shot, it would be considered the lower end of 7th tier, but nobody who saw the result would seriously consider calling it that.

Narberal's [Chain Dragon Lightning] would consume a similar amount of magic power to activate, but the process of activating the magic had a critical difference. Narberal would gather enough MP to activate the spell, convert it to the lightning element, release it in a physical form, then fire it towards the enemy as a magic attack. Such magic could turn most living things within 20 meters to ash, but contrarily, that is all it could do.

From its design, the goal of the Elenium Type-95 was to permit the physical manifestation of mana, something which magic casters could only perform using a horribly inefficient process involving multiple conversions between states. Meanwhile, Lancer's Rifle was designed to fire bullets made of magic power, but could normally only fire a fixed amount of mana per shot. Within the bounds of YGGDRASIL's mechanics, this kind of synergy was impossible, but in reality it was possible, if only theoretically.

The end result was a blindingly bright beam of pure mana which would disintegrate anything it made contact with. Ainz would have complained that it wouldn't be hard for a level 100 character to evade, and that its cast time was far too long to be practical, but it did not change the fact that even a Floor Guardian would not come out unscratched if they took a direct hit from it.

This potency surprised even the caster herself, who naturally needed to continue looking at her target to aim. After the beam was fired, she had to grope around inside the Magic Bag for a potion to cure her own blindness. The magic rifle in her hands had also grown hot enough to melt skin, if not for her innate resistance. Thankfully, it was not enough to melt whatever metal it was made of, so it should recover given time. She nodded at her handiwork.

"It's been a while, but the result was pretty good… It feels really good to be able to do that without muttering some silly chant." (Tanya)

"Oni boss, was there a reason for us to be here?" (Tia)

"Don't let your guard down, the response hasn't disappeared!" (Lakyus)

From the mouth of the cave, a massive, eight meter tall dragon skeleton rushed towards them. Unlike the low-tier Skeletal Dragon, this was not a mass of various bones taking a dragon-like form, but an animated dragon skeleton. Back when Tanya had first seen it, it had majestic pearl-white bones and not a single scratch, but its current appearance was better described as battered.

The Dracolich's entire right half was scorched black and crumbling into ash as it ran along the ground. On its left, starting from the lower jaw, across several ribs and both limbs, large gashes covered its bones, remnants of the battle against Momon.

It was clearly on the verge of death, but still it charged out of the cave and lunged at Tanya, trying to crush her with its remaining body. Her shell held against the dragon's weight, but the ground beneath her could not, as her shell began to dig a spherical hole into the snowy earth beneath them.

"Evaded a direct hit, huh? Shame." (Tanya)

"[Maximize Magic: Shard Buck Shots]!" (Evileye)

Unlike Tanya who intentionally stood still and took the Dracolich's charge, the Blue Roses jumped to either side of the charging dragon. While it was immobilized trying to force Tanya into the ground, they attacked from either side. Simultaneously, Evileye's magic struck the left side of its skull while Gagaran's war pick crushed the already brittle right half of its torso.

The Dracolich roared, swinging its head to the left trying to bite Evileye, but she had already disappeared with [Dimensional Move], landing next to Gagaran to fire a [Crystal Lance] into the opposite side.

Trying to swat down the two, it swung its massive tail around towards them, which Gagaran blocked, but was still thrown backward. Landing in the snow some distance away, she got up and ran back in with the momentum of a charging bull.

While its attention was drawn to the right side, Lakyus swung the Demonic Sword Kilineyram overhead into one of its left legs, deepening the gash left from Momon's fight. The Dracolich gave another furious roar.

Realizing it could neither break Tanya's barrier nor swat down the others while holding her down, the Dracolich jumped back, releasing its magic to cover itself in a dark aura, which sunk back into its body, partially closing the wounds on either flank.

"It's healing itself with magic, but doesn't look like it has enough to fully recover from the first attack. Tanya, if you had time, could you fire another attack like that?" (Evileye)

"No, I can't. Magic power isn't an issue, but the gun won't hold out, it's already too hot to keep using. Can you break its charge?" (Tanya)

"Probably, but it'll break through after a few seconds." (Evileye)

"That's plenty. Give me one of those crystal lances of yours, as sturdy as you can make it." (Tanya)

Evileye nodded, casting the spell and leaving the lance in the air, which Tanya grabbed by the handle. Despite being made of magic, the lance was still a physical object, so it could be used like an ordinary weapon. However, given that it was longer than her entire body and heavier than she was, it was rather unwieldy.

"I'll go drive this in, here it comes!" (Tanya)

The Dracolich roared again, charging at the two of them. Leaving Evileye to stop it, Tanya jumped into the air and rapidly rose to around 500 meters above the battlefield.

Evileye calmly stood still as the Dracolich rushed towards her. Once she was sure it was too close to stop, she raised her hand to cast her spell.

"[Crystal Wall]!" (Evileye)

A colossal wall rose up right in front of the Dracolich, which it rammed from the front. Its head crashed through the wall a meter above the ground, but the rest of its body was stuck behind it.

"[Crystal Wall]!" (Evileye)

Using a second spell in the same location, the wall expanded to grow around the struggling Dracolich, now wrapped around its neck like a massive collar.

Far above the battlefield, Tanya stopped her acceleration and hovered in place. Putting the rifle into the magic bag, she changed her grip on the lance to hold it with both hands, then centered herself above the Dracolich's head while aiming it directly downwards.

"This feels like it might break a few bones, but I'll just heal it off. It should make for a believable finish." (Tanya)

Muttering words which did not fit a serious battle, she flew directly back down, using gravity to aid her own acceleration towards the ground.

The Dracolich pushed its forelimbs into the crystal wall, trying to tear it apart and free its head. As the wall began to crack, Tanya's dive struck the center of its skull like a meteor, shaking the entire mountain once again.

Although she had thrown the lance forward before landing, she had still crashed into the ground in front of its head with most of her speed intact, which had as expected broken her legs despite the magic shell and support formula. Flying to get off the ground, she pulled out a second potion and drank it, then landed back on her feet.

Surprisingly, the Dracolich was not dead even with that. Cracks ran along the length of its skull, the flames in its hollow eyes dimming, but still it slowly lifted its head while letting out a pained groan.

"Seriously? I really thought that would do it, though…" (Tanya)

"It's fine, even our meathead can figure it out with this much of a hint." (Evileye)

Right on cue, Gagaran ran up the struggling dragon's side, jumping onto its head, hammering the war pick down on the handle of the lance, driving it in like a giant stake. Too injured to dodge, having already used all its available magic on healing, Gagaran's massive strike drove the Dracolich's head back into the ground, shattering it into shards of bone on impact.

With the skull broken, the rest of the bones making up the Dracolich's body lost the energy holding them together, clattering into a pile all at once. They watched the pile guardedly to make sure, but they showed no signs of moving.

"We won?" (Tia)

"Looks like it." (Tina)

"Rather, where were you two? I don't remember seeing either of you during the fight." (Gagaran)

"If we're not seen, isn't that us doing our job?" (Tina)

"Are you sure you weren't just slacking off?" (Evileye)

"And Evileye, don't think I didn't hear that last comment." (Gagaran)

"Hm? I don't know what you're talking about." (Evileye)

"You really do have some impressive teamwork. I honestly didn't expect your team to be of that much help against it, but I'm glad to have been mistaken. I really wish you would come back to E-Rantel to work for Ainz-sama instead. It's too much of a waste for capable adventurers to be working as simple mercenaries." (Tanya)

"Thank you for your words, but-" (Lakyus)

"Alright. I'll go." (Evileye)

"Evileye?" (Lakyus)

Lakyus had started to refuse the invitation, yet the one who had expressed the most hatred for the Sorcerer King had accepted instead.

"Lakyus. I don't mind whether you come with me or not, but this is something I need to do." (Evileye)

"Wait, Evileye, you aren't seriously accepting just to go see Momon-san, are you?" (Gagaran)

"It's not that… It's not just that. What Tanya told me before is right. Ever since that war, we've continued treating the Sorcerer King as the enemy, but it's true that he has shown no signs of attacking again, and at times has even been helping other countries. If there is a way to see peace without fighting, I have to at least try looking for it." (Evileye)

"What about the rest of you? Even if you come along, there's no obligation for you to join. Try talking to the guildmaster in E-Rantel, if you're not certain." (Tanya)

_Argh, I feel like I'm trying to convince them to sign up for some kind of pyramid scheme. The salaryman's soul inside me is crying out in pain._

"What'll we do, Lakyus? I don't mind giving them the chance, but if you don't trust them, it's up to you." (Gagaran)

"… It's true that if they just left the Dracolich alone, the Kingdom would have been in serious trouble. Not only did they warn us, but they sent help… Alright, let's do it." (Lakyus)

_Ahhh, this is totally fraud. Any way you look at it this is fraud. I'm even making up fake customer reviews to support us. Please stop, you're making me cry inside._

"So, that cave was facing in the direction of E-Rantel, right? Should we take the new tunnel through the mountain?" (Tia)

"No, no, there's no way that shot seriously went through the entire mountain, right…? Right?" (Gagaran)

Incidentally, they went into the tunnel to check, but everything past the impact point was still largely molten, making it impossible to check just how far the attack had reached. The details of the battle were never recorded, so when the cave was searched by archeologists centuries later, it was believed to be a natural cave formation, and became one of the natural wonders of the world.

"You call this _not much_? What kind of standards are you used to dealing with?" (Evileye)

"Well, even if you ask that…" (Tanya)


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Part 1

No longer rushing to chase down an imaginary threat, Tanya and Blue Rose traveled to E-Rantel at a leisurely pace. The mountains they had climbed were effectively neutral territory since no country cared enough to lay claim to them, but the plains immediately surrounding them were part of the Slane Theocracy. At Lakyus's suggestion, they followed the foot of the mountains back up north instead of immediately returning to the road, so as to avoid an international incident, unlikely as it might have been.

Although she didn't see the need to mention it to them at this point, Tanya had actually made some preparations for that, just in case. Since she was an officer of the Sorcerous Kingdom and had technically crossed the border into the Re-Estize Kingdom, one could say that she had invaded the Kingdom. Even if she hadn't expected Blue Rose to say anything about it, they might have later reported it so somebody far more hostile, who could then turn it into something bigger.

This could be said to be in direct violation of her orders not to do anything which might lead to war with the Kingdom, which is why she had prepared some additional insurance. While waiting for the Death Knights she had sent out to be discovered, she asked (read: threatened) Ainzach, the guildmaster in E-Rantel to register her and issue her a mithril plate. He cried about abuse of authority the whole time, but complied in the end.

With the plate in hand, Tanya would have at least some legitimacy crossing the border, being an adventurer chasing down a group of monsters. Now, it didn't seem likely that she would have a use for it anymore, so the plate which adventurers around the world might work towards their entire lives would instead gather dust in the corner of her Magic Bag. She held that over-preparing was better than cutting corners, especially when the work required could be pushed to somebody else.

After they had safely crossed the border into the Sorcerous Kingdom, Tanya took out one of her [Message] scrolls to report the mission's success, and to make sure Ainz would be available to meet with Evileye. She briefly questioned whether to contact Demiurge or to directly message Ainz, in the end deciding on the latter.

As a former soldier, she felt uneasy directly contacting the leader of the entire organization, the situation being as if a single major unilaterally ignored the chain of command to barge into the Field Marshal's office. However, Ainz was originally an ordinary civilian, definitely not the type to censure her for it. Furthermore, from what Yuri Alpha had told her, they were of similar rank, and the Pleiades were permitted to report directly to Ainz should the need arise. She was still jumping a rung in the ladder, but the gap wasn't nearly as wide as her analogy might imply.

Demiurge was a genius who could come up with a persuasive speech, which would then probably be handed off to Pandora's Actor to keep Ainz out of harm's way. The way Tanya saw it though, Evileye would be on guard for exactly that sort of persuasion. When your opponent is on guard against being manipulated, the correct response is usually to throw them off with sincerity, not to attack from the front.

Compared to Demiurge and Pandora's Actor who could give out all the correct responses, Ainz's honest approach should be much more effective at persuading Evileye, who was going into the conversation expecting to meet a manipulative evil genius. Much like the friend back in Japan who had happily tried bringing her into a pyramid scheme without even realizing it, she would have Ainz convert Evileye into an ally by not knowing that he's deceiving her. After all, an honest fool can lie just as naturally as a master con artist.

_I've done my job. Demiurge asked for 2 weeks, I gave him that and some extra, plus Evileye as a bonus on top of that. This should more than make up for my loss against the Pleiades. __I'm sure Demiurge recognizes how valuable she is as a symbol, second only to Momon for t__he purpose of __peaceful occupation. __As long as Ainz doesn't contradict w__hat I told her too much__, it should work out._

"Hearing the rumors about it is one thing, but even being here in person, it's hard to believe…" (Gagaran)

"Death Knights patrolling the streets, Soul Eaters in place of cart horses, Elder Liches to write in register books… Even when Evileye described it like that, it was just too absurd to believe. The entire city is a grand show of force, yet the citizens look happier than in the capital." (Lakyus)

The group had entered E-Rantel, and for all their reservation about coming, they had basically become tourists. Naturally, with how rare human visitors were, they attracted quite a lot of attention, all the more so because they were still carrying their weapons in the city. That wasn't to say Tanya herself didn't draw attention: Despite the diversity of species in E-Rantel, demons were still among the rarest, as most of Demiurge's subordinates never left Nazarick itself.

As part of Nazarick, Tanya could have just flown straight into the city, but for the sake of the others, she entered together with them the normal way. They got the full set of warnings upon entry, telling them not to draw weapons or worry about the Death Knights, lest they get killed for it.

The purpose of the rule wasn't to disarm visitors but to prevent them from reflexively drawing them in panic, primarily intended to protect those who normally carried weapons for self-defense, yet had never seen anything like a Death Knight. As Blue Rose had already seen Death Knights and even fought them, there should be no need for them to surrender their weapons.

Leaving them to wander the city, Tanya requested that Evileye follow her to the castle to speak with Ainz. With just the two of them, there was no need to wade through the traffic on the ground. Finding a less busy side street, they took flight from the middle of the road, heading directly towards the castle at the very center.

Practically speaking, there weren't really any laws about flying in cities, mostly due to how few people could actually do so. At the same time, this meant that doing so would inevitably make them the center of attention, if not suspicion depending on who saw them. More likely than not, doing so in a hostile country would just get them arrested as spies.

Normally, doing something like flying towards the castle at high speed would just be asking to get shot down, or at very least fired at. Unless the one flying was at least as recognizable as Ainz, the guards would usually choose to start shooting instead of trying to identify them in the few seconds it would take to reach the castle.

On this occasion, she had already reported ahead of time with a rough estimate of when to expect them. As they approached the castle, they were greeted not by arrows and magic, but by maids. Waiting in the front courtyard were Yuri Alpha and Solution Epsilon of the Pleiades.

Tanya landed normally in front of them, greeting them as she did. Evileye on the other hand took some distance immediately upon noticing them, preparing to fight.

"What the hell is going on here? Why are Jaldabaoth's maids here?" (Evileye)

Having previously fought them while they were playing the role of Jaldabaoth's demon maids, Evileye got on guard against an ambush. In response, the two simply bowed to welcome them to the castle.

"Welcome back to E-Rantel, Tanya-sama, as well as Evileye-sama. Ainz-sama is waiting for you inside. Please come this way." (Yuri)

Although her opponents were showing no signs of hostility, Evileye didn't let her guard down. Deciding that the conversation wouldn't progress at this rate, Tanya asked Yuri to explain the situation. She herself was familiar with the outline of the story, but it was better for them to give the full story Demiurge had written for them.

"Evileye-sama. We of the Pleiades are bound to serve Ainz-sama. When we previously encountered you and your companions in the capital, we had been bound by soul contracts to serve Jaldabaoth-sama, regardless of our will. During his fight against Jaldabaoth-sama, Ainz-sama seized control of that binding, placing us under his control. With Jaldabaoth-sama slain, we now serve Ainz-sama both by binding and by will, as the master who freed us from Jaldabaoth-sama's curse." (Yuri)

Before she noticed, the story had become something far more grandiose than what it started as. Instead of just being magically bound by Ainz, they had now been saved by him, so their unwavering loyalty wouldn't seem unusual. Jaldabaoth being a storybook villain, it wasn't hard to change his side of the story from simply being served by the maids to having enslaved them.

From what Tanya had heard, the Pleiades themselves held a considerable grudge against Blue Rose and especially Evileye for her mistreatment of Entoma. According to them, Blue Rose had attacked Entoma while she was in the middle of a meal, interrupting her work and forcing a fight after she had politely asked not to. After that, Evileye had personally tried to corner and kill Entoma, who had to be saved by Demiurge, then Jaldabaoth.

With that in mind, Yuri and Solution were probably the right choice. Lupusregina was already known in Carne Village, which could cause the whole story to fall apart depending on who she spoke to. Narberal had already met Evileye as Nabe, so she was obviously out of the question. CZ was a safe choice, but they would probably just stare at each other instead of explaining anything. Sending Entoma would be nothing short of provoking a fight. Solution was cruel and inhuman as well, but she knew how to act otherwise.

_Rather than the best choice, aren't those two the only choice?_

Tanya had gone through nearly the exact same chain of logic that Ainz had followed to select these two.

Leaving them to guide Evileye to Ainz's room, Tanya excused herself.

Entering the castle through a side entrance, Tanya headed over to the office she had occupied. The castle originally having been designed to house a dozen nobles with their families and retainers, it was far more spacious than was necessary for Ainz. With the exception of a few rooms reserved for occasions when the Guardians need to stay, they were nearly all empty, so nobody objected to her just claiming a bedroom and turning it into an office.

E-Rantel's close proximity to the Great Tomb of Nazarick meant that most of the core members would rather just return instead of remaining in the city. As one of the rare exceptions who found it comfortable to stay in a normal city, Tanya was basically free to do what she wanted, just as long as she didn't disturb Demiurge's or Albedo's plans.

Locking the door behind her and dropping into the bed as soon as her boots were off, Tanya took her long-awaited break. She had, after all, just spent the last two weeks climbing mountains, with no more time for breaks than Blue Rose. It was still a relatively regular schedule compared to the front lines, but that didn't make it less exhausting. Even now, she needed to be ready to respond to anything Evileye might do, so she couldn't afford to sleep just yet. Rolling over, she spread out on the bed and looked up the ceiling, falling deep into thought over the battle from a few days ago.

Even though their fight against the Dracolich was set up in such a way that it wasn't possible for her to die, there was still much to learn from a mock battle against a stronger opponent. Everything after the initial charge had mostly been a serious fight: She had ordered it to simply 'Fight', meaning it was injured, but not holding much back.

As Ainz had explained, the Dracolich was a level 66 undead, magic-focused with a specialization in necromancy. Having banned its use of instant-death spells, it was a much easier fight than it could have been, but didn't change the fact that it was 5 levels above any of the Pleiades. The only reason Ainz didn't use them more often was because their skillset was so similar to his own, meaning that anything they could do, he could do far better. Objectively speaking, it was by no means weak.

She didn't doubt Ainz's estimate of its strength. Blue Rose were considered to be among the strongest in the world, and even they would not have been able to win alone, not even with the legendary Landfall on their side. And yet, if she had not realized the power of the magic formula she was firing and adjusted her aim to get a near-miss at the last moment, it would probably have been vaporized without a chance to resist.

Thinking about it rationally, she was the irregular. Back in the Empire, there were very few cases in which that sort of single telegraphed shot would be useful on a battlefield. It was a waste of magic no matter what the target was. Aerial mages weren't intended to fight tanks or destroy bunkers, their greatest strength came from their mobility and versatility.

_F__loating in one place __in the middle of the battlefield for long enou__gh to use that __would __just be asking to get shot __down__. Not only that, but concentrating that much magic in one place would be like putting up a beacon for every hostile mage within twenty kilometers. Friendly spotters couldn't give artillery such a perfect __stationary __target. It w__ould be __beyond suicidal. __Any mage who tried something like that would go the way of __colonial __British line infantry marching towards an entrenched machine gun nest._

_Yet, in this world, that doctrine may actually be valid. __Honestly, if I were to face off against the armies of this world, I could single-handedly slaughter them without a scratch on me. The equipment Ainz gave me is far too powerful for them to b__e a m__eaningful __threat__. The opposite also holds true: I can say with certainty that if Ainz or any of his Guardians wanted t__o kill me__, I would be dead before I s__aw __them move._

_I have to assume that enemies exist of a similar level. The group with the mind-controlling World-Class item, the Platinum Dragon Lord, and of course, Being X itself. __These are the sort of enemies I need to be preparing for fights against, not just ways to wipe out human armies. __With them as my target, the fight against the Dracolich has shown me just how i__nadequate __I am._

_At his level, even a pure magic caster like Ainz had enough physical strength to be an unrivaled warrior. Likewise, that Dracolich was supposed to be magic-focused, but it could throw around the heavily armored, pure warrior Gagaran like a ragdoll. __The difference in levels is absolute, yet my shell and formula were both effective against it. __Clearly, there's some potential to it, but I can't go melting my gun or breaking my legs every time I have to fight something stronger than me._

Tanya reached for the Type-95 computation orb around her neck, holding it in up in front of her eyes, carefully examining it. It had started out as an unstable piece of junk created by Doctor Schugel, ready to explode at the slightest misalignment. Next, Being X had stabilized it for me, but put his curse on it in the process, so that the mere act of activating it would tear at my sanity. Finally, Ainz's gift had negated its curse, turning it into what it is now.

_W__ithout a doubt__, this is the cause. __The combined efforts of the best of multiple worlds, only one step away from perfection. E__ven Demiurge admitted that he wouldn't be able to recreate something with this level of precision, nor could Ainz __perform that kind of enchantment. Hell, the only reason they h__aven't __take__n__ it away is because they know __that nobody else can use it. __Not that I blame them for it, __I'd do the same in their position._

She crawled over to the side of the massive bed, where she had set down the Lancer's Rifle, which was leaning against the wall. She picked up the rifle before laying back down, similarly examining it. She had only received it barely a month ago, but it was already her beloved partner, the weapon to which she entrusted her life. Although it was fundamentally different from any other rifle she had ever used, the ease with which she learned to use it was a testament to its quality.

_Then, there's this. I never liked rifles before, with how inconvenient this body made using them. The recoil would bruise my shoulder every time, a__nd these short arms made just holding one a trial. __With this, it's like a different class of weapon entirely. __To begin with, it has no recoil to speak of. __Sure, it's long, but it's so light that I don't mind. Unlike soldiers on the ground, a heavier weapon isn't more stable for an aerial mage: Swinging one around to aim makes keeping your balance in the air a nightmare, __especially with a body this lightweight._

_For normal soldiers, a rifle's bullet would be the tool for delivering the formula to the enemy, since mana had no physical form of its own. For me, the Type-95 could just create physical phenomena on its own, so that was an unnecessary step… or so I thought. Now that I'm using a magic weapon with this level of quality, the ease __and speed __with which I can construct a formula is astoundin__g. Given five seconds, I c__an __construct and fire an explosive formula with enough power to level this entire castle. __Not only that, but I could just keep firing those continuously, but the gun wouldn't hold out._

_Single-shot weapons should stay in the world of fantasy. The only ones who would ever suggest using something like that are idiots who don't understand the basics of logistics or cost-benefit analysis. With how many papers I've written detailing the importance of __reliability for military equipment, __I refuse to use something like that as a matter of principle._

_I know I can't sacrifice power if I'm up against such powerful opponents, but neither is there a way to use the mana more efficiently. What I'm using now is already pure materialized mana, the peak for what is possible__. __No matter what I do, I won't be able to use less energy for the same result to save on heat generation._

_Instead, what I need to figure out is how to prevent that heat from spreading to the __frame of the __gun itself. Even if it costs me more mana to f__ire__, the efficiency I gain from continuing to use this rifle instead of switching to another weapon when it overheats would more than make up that difference._

_Frankly, it's a ridiculous problem to even be thinking about. I'm no physicist, but I k__now __w__hat __it's like trying to contain raw energy at temperatures n__ormally only seen inside a star, but __inside a gun's barrel, all without heating up the frame b__arely a milimeter__ away. __This isn't just absurdly difficult, it might well be physically impossible._

_Thankfully, I'm not a physicist, I'm a mage. The v__ery __basis of modern magic is to precisely apply a magical stimulus to interfere with the physical world. __Using magic shells to protect against heat is already a solved problem, __using __isolation-type shells. They're __pretty __expensive to construct and maintain, but block all heat transfer between the inside and outside._

_Theoretically, I know the solution to this problem. My issue is that actually putting it into practice is like asking me to weave a cocoon around the sun without missing by more than a paper-thin gap, lest the whole thing explode, all while continuing to compress a small nuclear bomb's worth of energy into the form of a bullet. Really, that's not even an analogy, that is a literal description of what I am trying to accomplish here._

_Wishful thinking is nice and all, but that's not something I can develop in just a few days, probably not even a few years. I'm not certain if I still have a finite lifespan as a demon, but there's no need to rush things and blow myself up in the process. For the time being, I should just focus on doing my job._

* * *

Part 2

Evileye had tentatively agreed to work for Ainz. There were several extra conditions added on which would prevent her from being used as a military power, but since they had no interest in doing so anyway, it wasn't much of a loss.

The role Tanya had envisioned for her was as a go-between to ease tensions between the Sorcerous Kingdom and the Re-Estize Kingdom. Just as she had suggested, Ainz kept his demands towards Evileye fairly minimal, only requiring her to reveal her identity and become a figure for reconciliation. Past that, she was free to travel to and from the Kingdom, and otherwise act as she wishes.

Her gamble having paid off, Tanya next contacted Demiurge to report the completion of her mission. She had been prepared for some retaliation for ignoring him to report directly to Ainz, an action tantamount to trampling on his pride as a general, but unexpectedly he had nothing but high praise. In his eyes, what she had done was only natural as one loyal to Ainz Ooal Gown, and something as trivial as his own pride meant nothing before the benefits Nazarick would achieve as a result.

After Tanya concluded her report, Demiurge proudly announced that they were now prepared to move to the final stage of their plan against the Kingdom. Having decided that she was capable of working independently to achieve results, he only told her to go with Blue Rose to the Kingdom and support whatever Renner was doing.

As he had seen no need to personally control Renner's plans, even Demiurge had only heard details when she had a request to make. Approximately one month ago, she had suddenly made contact, informing him that her brother was acting in the way she had intended, and now needed Blue Rose temporarily removed from the capital, then sent back after three weeks. With that target only a few days away, Tanya would have to get them to leave before the end of the next day to arrive on schedule.

Having received her orders, she cut off the [Message] from her end. Quickly confirming that she was alone in her room, she let out a prolonged sigh while falling face-first onto the bed.

_Right. I should have know this would happen. __Well, I knew it would happen, but I was hoping for a bit of a break at least, but not even a day? Ahhhh, Ainz did mention that he had to go out of his way to get them j__ust to take breaks, just how much of a black company is this? I'm not the sort of workaholic who works unpaid overtime just for the fun of it!_

_ Alright, the benefits are amazing. The value of this equipment is easily a few orders of magnitude above a lifetime's worth of Imperial mage officer wages. The employee residence __is fit for a king, that is to say it was originally made for one. __The potions and healing magic they provide beats out any health insurance policy our company ever could have offered back on Earth. __Yes, they're amazing, but what good are they when the working hours would put the most invested of corporate slaves to shame?_

_ Well, it still beats getting shelled. Or getting surrounded and shot at. Oh, and whatever it was the army cafeteria called 'food'. Now that I think of it that way, all I've had to do is c__limb mountains and playact fights against undead. __If that's all it takes to get allies I can use against Being X, it's not all that bad._

Resolving her internal conflicts, Tanya got back up off the bed, then started pacing around the room, thinking about how to resolve the mission she had received.

_Getting Lakyus and the others to leave shouldn't be hard. They clearly came here because they were worrying about Evileye, so once she leaves, they'll follow as well. Even if they have a few old friends to meet up with, I doubt it'd take them __any __longer than __the end of __today._

_So then, how do I get Evileye to leave? Ainz just said he wouldn't be giving her direct orders, __so I have no authority to ask her to return to the kingdom. Even if I did, there's no chance she would leave without first making contact with Momon. __Ainz already made it clear that Momon must remain in the city for its stability, to the point where he personally went out to fight Jaldabaoth instead of sending Momon. __Claiming__ he's out now __wouldn't make any sense__._

_Is it safe to let them meet? The Momon in the city is c__urrently __Pandora's Actor, __so she shouldn't notice any similarities between Momon and Ainz. If she just wanted to ask how he was doing, then Pandora's Actor would reassure her that Ainz kept his word, which would be to our advantage. __She could then leave with her worries settled._

_The problem, then, is what happens if she meets him and proclaims her love, __then decides to stay by his side__? __I can't even begin to guess how either of them would respond after that. Dealing with romantic drama between an ancient vampire and a doppelganger definitely wasn't part of the job description. __Any way that develops, it'll be a huge pain in the ass._

_If I'm going to let them meet, I have to control the situation to some extent. As long as I get them to start the conversation from a fixed spot, Pandora's Actor should be able to get her to do what I want. I may not have the authority to give Evileye orders, but she wouldn't refuse him if he asked. I just need to give him a good excuse to send her back to the Kingdom. __If I can just get her to start by telling him she's a vampire, that should be enough for him to 'understand' and agree with what we're sending her to do._

Putting together a solution, Tanya took out another [Message] scroll, contacting Pandora's Actor. Describing to him what she wanted him to do, he agreed that it would fit Momon's character and aid Nazarick's goals. Having received the confirmation, she set out for the inn where Blue Rose were staying. From here, she just had to improvise a way to get Evileye to the start line.

"… So, how did it end up like this?" (Tanya)

"Don't ask me… We got recognized as soon as we entered, then everybody started buying us drinks. Gagaran accepted every one, and before I knew it she had dragged Lakyus and the twins into a drinking contest with the locals…" (Evileye)

Tanya went to the inn looking for Blue Rose, but on the way she passed by an unusually rowdy bar considering it was still before dusk. Suddenly getting a really bad premonition, she checked inside, finding Gagaran laughing while surrounded by empty casks. Next to her, Lakyus, Tia, and Tina were in various stages of unconsciousness, while Evileye was sitting quietly in a corner, trying (unsuccessfully) to act like an unrelated party.

"You're not going to join them?" (Tanya)

"Drinking would mean having to take off my mask, which I'm not doing here. Besides, what would be the point? Undead are immune to poison, so I can't get drunk anyway." (Evileye)

"Speaking from experience?" (Tanya)

"…" (Evileye)

"I've always preferred wine over beer, but I've had to hold back for the sake of my growth, not that it matters anymore. I wouldn't really blame you for trying, if your original age is as it appears." (Tanya)

"Wait. You're definitely speaking from personal experience there. Just how old are you, anyway?" (Evileye)

"Hm… I'd lost count of the days, but I was supposed to be turning thirteen in a month or so, why?" (Tanya)

"…" (Evileye)

"…" (Tanya)

Without another word, they both dropped the topic. After an awkward delay, the first to break the silence was Evileye.

"What did you come here for? Don't you have anything else to be doing?" (Evileye)

"For once, I have some free time, so I came to check that you aren't getting into any trouble. As the one who invited you here, I'm the one who gets yelled at if you start anything, or get yourselves killed. Since those sorts of transcendent monsters shouldn't be too common, I don't expect to have any real work for a while." (Tanya)

"Not too common? First Honyopenyoko, then Jaldabaoth and his maids, the Dracolich… Not to mention the Sorcerer King or yourself…" (Evileye)

"Please don't say that… I just want a vacation… Maybe I should take that drink after all." (Tanya)

Tanya sank down onto the counter from Evileye's all-too-real comment with a deep sigh, but she was well aware that every single one of those threats had originated from Nazarick. Even so, knowing that they were self-inflicted didn't save her from having to work overtime whenever Demiurge wrote another one into his story.

"Can demons get drunk?" (Evileye)

"You'll never know if you don't try. Poison immunity doesn't stop you from enjoying the mood, either. You'll be revealing it publicly soon anyway, just take the mask off and drink. How about it?" (Tanya)

Thinking about the offer, Evileye took a glance over to her other companions, but Gagaran hadn't even noticed Tanya's entrance, the small mountain of unconscious competitors steadily growing in size. Deciding there was no harm to drinking without getting drunk, she accepted.

_Drinking together is a business tradition in itself. Even somebody who goes unwillingly still gets dragged into the drinking before long. It's a common way to build the team's trust in each other, but more importantly __for me__, introducing alcohol to a situation is great for getting somebody to slip up and say something stupid. __This'll go much smoother if she brings up Momon instead of me._

_Well, I'm pretty sure that the relative abundance of real coffee and alcohol is affecting my reasoning. Compared to wartime rationing and imitation goods, even luxuries might as well be overflowing around here._

Fact: Unlike undead, demons do not possess an innate resistance to poison and can get drunk.

Addendum: The Curse Lord's Bracelets grant complete immunity to low and mid-level poisons.

Conclusion: Neither Tanya nor Evileye would get drunk no matter how much they drank.

Several hours later, the two had accumulated a collection of bottles which was rapidly approaching three digits. With both of them looking to be in the lower half of their teens, they drew an entirely different sort of attention from the surroundings. Before long, Gagaran noticed the two of them drinking together, bringing them over to her table where the other three members had long since fallen asleep.

Most troubled by this situation was the bar's owner, torn between the absurd number of drinks he had sold them, and the issue of whether he could actually charge anything for them. His customers were a demon who was openly wearing the Sorcerous Kingdom's emblem and the adamantite-ranked Blue Rose members, who were together with her for some reason. Holding back tears over the lost profits, he settled on just making the pile of Gagaran's challengers pay for the difference, since they didn't seem likely to remember how many drinks they had actually bought the night before.

By now, it was past midnight and the bar had quieted down. It wasn't as though everybody had gone home, there was simply no longer anybody still conscious except the three instigators themselves. He would have already closed the bar by now on most days, but closing would first require him to figure out how to get everybody home, which he had long since given up on. He would simply have to wait for their wives to excavate them from the pile and drag them out.

Those three were continuing to drink even now, though even they were starting to slow down. Two of them didn't seem to be aware of the chaos they were responsible for, or maybe they just didn't care. To the would-be competitors, being so easily outpaced by two tiny newcomers encouraged them to speed up their own drinking, but they couldn't keep up at all.

Briefly interrupting his cleaning, the reluctant barkeeper examined the three. Gagaran he could accept being such a heavy drinker, but he couldn't even begin to guess how the other two could, human or not. The pile of bottles they had gone through was easily several times the size of their own bodies, so where was all that liquid going?

For the sake of his sanity, he stopped thinking about it, ignoring their conversation to focus on cleaning up.

Tanya looked around idly, thinking to herself about the importance of a human body's natural response mechanisms, as well as the trouble one ran into once those were no longer available to them.

"What did you end up doing to get that chibi to start drinking like this?" (Gagaran)

"I don't recall doing anything particularly special, though. Taking the mask off in public aside, doesn't she normally join when it's just you?" (Tanya)

"No, she wouldn't no matter what I tried she never did. I guess she just needed a drinking buddy her own age?" (Gagaran)

"Musclehead, just shut up." (Evileye)

Evileye grabbed Gagaran from across the table, but without her mask on, the attempt at intimidation was ruined by her childish face. As Gagaran just laughed at her face, she gave up, sitting back down to take another drink.

"So, what is it then? One last drink together before quitting?" (Gagaran)

"Hm? Didn't Ainz-sama say you could travel freely in and out of the Sorcerous Kingdom any time you wanted? There's no reason for you to resign, is there?" (Tanya)

"Oi, oi, Evileye! You said you'd have to stay in E-Rantel for at least a while! What the hell do you mean you don't have to stay?" (Gagaran)

"Tch." (Evileye)

Evileye just clicked her tongue at Gagaran's realization, glaring at Tanya who had accidentally ruined her plan. Tanya herself had not know what Evileye had told the others, but was glad to have accidentally dodged a bullet. Had the rest of Blue Rose left without Evileye, Tanya would have had a much harder time getting her out.

"Why would you go out of your way to stay in this city any longer than you have… Wait, are you still trying to get with Momon?" (Gagaran)

_Perfect._

Tanya smiled to herself internally now that the half-drunk Gagaran had brought up the topic, but forced her face into an expression of passive curiosity.

"Why bring up Momon-dono now? Actually, I recall reading that he saved you from Jaldabaoth, then that time you were fighting the Dracolich's Death Knights, you suddenly called out his name… So you really did-" (Tanya)

"You really can't keep that a secret from anyone, can you Evileye? She figured it out from the very beginning, didn't she? Why don't you just go tell Momon before he figures it out himself?" (Gagaran)

"As if I could do something like that! I'm satisfied with just watching his heroic form from behind. Surely he knows I'm not even human by now, I'd just be another disgusting monster to him…" (Evileye)

"Momon-dono wouldn't hold something like that against you. It's not like we've told him anything about you, either. If you want to go confess to him, go do it yourself." (Tanya)

"Even the demon girl is encouraging you, why don't you go do it? Profess your undying love to your Momon-sama before we all go back to the kingdom? Finally experience that first love after two centuries! With that much alcohol in you, go be a little daring, why don't you?" (Gagaran)

Gagaran's words were a mix of light mockery and serious encouragement. For all the usual banter between the two of them, she was still hoping for her friend's happiness. Evileye herself had already lived for centuries having given up on romance, but that was now rekindled with her obsessive love for Momon.

If what Tanya had said about Momon's character was true, Gagaran thought it would be better to go on the offensive and tell him the truth. If she was going to reveal her nature to everybody in the Re-Estize Kingdom after this anyway, it'd be better to share the secret with him first, rather than to let him find out through hearsay. At least this way, it wouldn't be as though she were trying to deceive him, and she would instead show that she trusted him.

"Really though, looking at her now, she's quite beautiful, isn't she? Seems like a waste to send her off wearing those robes heavy, so why don't we get her changed?" (Tanya)

"Oh, you think so too? She's always covered up to avoid being found out, but she doesn't fall far behind the Golden Princess, though she's a bit small. You could make her look like a real princess with the right outfit, but I doubt anybody here knows how to pick one out." (Gagaran)

"Then, should I call the maids? I think CZ-san knows how to coordinate an outfit, plus she should know where the cos-… extra clothes are." (Tanya)

"Yeah, let's do that, I'm sure your king has enough wealth to not miss a few dresses, for a good purpose." (Gagaran)

"Why are you two becoming best friends over something like this!?" (Evileye)

But her protest was ignored as Tanya and Gagaran continued planning in Evileye's place. Without wasting a moment, Tanya took out a [Message] scroll to contact CZ Delta, who was already waiting in the castle.

"… Nn, Perfect." (CZ)

As promised, Evileye had been invited (dragged) to the castle by Tanya and Gagaran, where CZ had already set up a room-sized wardrobe. She resisted at first, yelling that she hadn't worn such dresses in 250 years, but CZ continued her work without caring. From Tanya's viewpoint, Evileye's struggling was more forced than serious resistance, as she was neither exerting her full strength nor using magic to escape.

_Perhaps despite what she says, she's glad to have support for going after Momon. I can't see that as anything but a humiliating punishment, though. Even what the Empire made me do for propaganda can't compare. Is that what love can turn a girl into? Romantic relations are one thing, but that's closer to the religious fanatics w__ho've tried __to kill me._

As Tanya and Gagaran watched from the side, CZ continued her work until morning. At least a few of the outfits Evileye had been changed into were obvoiusly just CZ playing around, but the end result was still an astonishing transformation.

"I'm glad we left this to a professional. There's no way either of us could have done something like that." (Tanya)

"Yeah. But still, to think her character could be changed so drastically… I wouldn't recognize her if I hadn't seen the change." (Gagaran)

"Do you not recognize whose fault this situation is? Why are you acting uninvolved now!?" (Evileye)

"No, sorry… it's not that it doesn't look good, but compared to your whole 'mysterious magic caster' appearance up until now, it's more like… a schoolgirl about to go on her first date?" (Tanya)

"Schoolgirl? What kind of world has schoolgirls who can afford that dress? I'd have thought she was some foreign princess about to get married." (Gagaran)

Tanya just shrugged, uninterested in arguing the point.

Evileye had been changed from her usual red-and-gray robes into a primarily white dress with light-pink details. It was visibly well-made, but more simple than grandiose, hence Tanya's description. It was something one could have seen on Earth if they looked around a public park on Valentine's Day.

The standards of their worlds were just too different. Even with Gagaran's untrained eye, she could tell the make and material were both of incredibly high quality, and the entire dress had even been lightly enchanted. Princess Renner would have had a hard time getting ahold of such a high-quality outfit, not to mention the added value of the enchantment, plain as it may be.

The simple yet beautiful dress, her lack of jewelry or other accessories, and her naturally beautiful appearance all came together to create an air of sincerity. It was only natural that Tanya and Gagaran would be surprised by the effect CZ was able to put together.

YGGDRASIL had been famous for its remarkable freedom in character creation, not only in terms of mechanical effects, but also from an aesthetic standpoint. Using the creator tools, one could create all sorts of equipment for themselves or their NPCs, with no less detail than professional tools used in the design industry. As a result, the game grew in popularity not only among gamers, but also among those interested primarily in the creative options. There were even some who started using the game for their work.

One of Ainz Ooal Gown's 41 core members was originally such a player. She worked as a costume designer specializing in fantasy films, purchasing the game and its full creator toolset intending to use it for work, before getting hooked on the rest of the game.

During her time playing the game, not a single member of Ainz Ooal Gown avoided getting dragged into a photoshoot wearing clothes she designed. Even Herohero and Bukubuku Chagama, both of whom played as amorphous slime races were not an exception. Back then, she had forcibly dressed him up in an emperor's finery and made him spout embarassing lines, making him complain while laughing with everybody else. It was the first time he had was made to role-play an undead emperor, but since he was now doing so daily, that day was now just a fond memory.

Although she had not personally designed any of Nazarick's NPCs, they had consulted with her about the outfit designs for well over half of them. Particularly for the male members who only knew enough about clothes to dress themselves in the morning, she was the savior who helped turn the visions they had of their characters into reality.

When Momonga was creating Pandora's Actor, he couldn't describe what he wanted him to wear in more detail than 'military uniform' and a few photos. Working off just that hint, she created his current outfit from scratch, sharing the approximate appearance of his reference photos, but far beyond a simple copy. She had even gone so far as to write an entire backstory describing the origin and meaning of each and every medal he wore. Her attention to detail was second only to Tabula Smaragdina, so when the two of them set out to design Albedo's outfit, the discussion took four days.

As a legacy of her time in YGGDRASIL, she had left behind thousands of outfits, which had been stored away upon her retirement. There were plain shirts, dresses, skirts, suits, tuxedoes, as well as exotic regal wear, wedding dresses, decorated armor, and even various joke outfits for cosplay use created upon request by the other members. It was a running joke that there were more outfits inside the Great Tomb of Nazarick than outside it, though they never took the time to actually count how many they had.

Ainz had been too busy to care about it, so he approved CZ's request for its use without noticing when it wound up in a pile of other paperwork brought to him. As a result, a pile of the dresses from that vault had made their way into this wardrobe room, and Evileye was cycled through half the collection CZ had picked out.

"By the way, how are we going to get our princess to Momon's inn? It's already morning, so if we go out now it'll definitely cause a commotion." (Gagaran)

"Already morning? CZ-san, what time is it now?" (Tanya)

"It is currently 7:58 A.M." (CZ)

"Ah, you don't need to worry about Momon-dono. I contacted him to come to the castle when we got here, saying that Evileye wanted to meet him. He should be here in two minutes or so." (Tanya)

"Two minutes?" (Gagaran)

Nobody in the room spoke for a few seconds. After finally processing what Tanya had said, Evileye covered her bright-red face with her hands while spouting an incomprehensible train of words, of which only the words "Momon-sama" could be recognized. Just as suddenly, she stopped and shot out of the chair she had been sitting in.

"CZ, block the door." (Tanya)

Without hesitation, Tanya ordered CZ to block Evileye's escape route.

"Dammit, [Invisibility]!" (Evileye)

"[Break Magic]." (Tanya)

Already prepared, Tanya used the scroll she had pulled out to cancel the spell. It was 3rd tier, the lowest of four countermagic spells, part of the same series as [Greater Break Magic] and [Magic Destruction], which were 5th and 7th tier, respectively. Each could cancel spells of equal or lower tier, the success rate depending on the difference in tiers and the relative spellcasting ability of the casters.

Evileye was certainly an experienced magic caster, but was nonetheless outclassed by Tanya, who had the aid of the divine-class Type-95. Flickering back into view after a single moment, Evileye considered her next move.

"I'm prepared for [Teleportation] as well, if that's what you're thinking of. Save me some effort and give up now." (Tanya)

Actually, while it was true that she had some [Greater Break Magic] scrolls, using them for this sort of playing around would definitely get her in trouble. A 3rd tier scroll could be used without much thought, but while 5th tier scrolls had begun being mass-produced, their supply was far from limitless.

Fortunately, Evileye hesitated long enough for her to be saved by a knock on the door. From the other side, Yuri's voice called out for them.

"Momon-sama has arrived. Please come out to see him." (Yuri)

Evileye was led to the audience hall. With Yuri Alpha in front of her and both Tanya and CZ Delta behind her, she felt more like a prisoner than an escorted princess. Gagaran was also joining up behind them, but she seemed far more interested in watching how this exchange would turn out than helping her escape.

The group arrived at a large door. Although it looked heavy enough to be operated by a pair of grown men, Yuri pulled it open with ease, then stepped aside with CZ, leading only the three of them through the door, closing it behind them once they passed through.

Immediately after she passed through the door, Evileye felt the full pressure of Momon's gaze crushing her, causing her to freeze in place with trembling legs. Once Tanya followed her through the door, the pressure lessened as his gaze shifted from herself to the demon, who looked annoyed but kept walking until they were only a couple meters away from Momon.

"So? You suddenly called me here saying Evileye-san needed something from me, where is she?" (Momon)

_Could it be that he doesn't even recognize me? Well, it's not surprising, since he's never seen me looking like this, and you wouldn't normally think the vampire who suddenly appears in front of you is the adventurer you came to see. What do I do now? Tanya-san did say that I'd have to confess to him myself, does that start now? Ugh, I just have to say it!_

"Yes. Thank you for coming, Momon-sama. I am Evileye. Before that, I was known as Landfall, and even before that, I was Keeno Fasrith Inberun. Please, call me Keeno." (Keeno)

Working up the courage to talk through the pressure Momon was giving off, Keeno gave her full introduction. For a few seconds, nobody spoke, until Momon cancelled the pressure to give his response.

"…I see. So this is what you wanted to show me, Tanya-dono… Thank you, both of you." (Momon)

"Huh?" (Keeno)

"I'm sorry for doubting you. Despite everything you had shown me up until now, I could not reconcile that the Sorcerer King truly did not wish for the destruction of all living beings. Yet, I was foolish. In your own way, you have been aiding your comrades and saving many innocent lives in the process. I was convinced that there could not be an undead who was not an enemy of humanity, yet you were before me the whole time. So I say, thank you, Keeno-san. Thank you for everything you have done." (Momon)

Hearing Momon's explanation and thanks, Keeno began to tear up. The tension of the situation lifted too suddenly, she collapsed to her knees and began to cry.

_So it wasn't all for nothing. My life ended on that day when I lost my friends, my family, my country… Yet I continued to live, for all these years. I spent centuries simply living, until Rigrit and Lakyus beat me, then I finally made some friends again. Now, hearing Momon-sama recognizing what I had been doing… so this is what it's like to be accepted. Everything I had done, it wasn't for nothing._

_ Ahhh, I really love him. Just hearing those few words from him gives me joy like nothing else. It's not just his strength, or that he saved me, I love everything about him. __Before I thought it would be enough to just watch over him, to just let him be, but I couldn't bear to be without him after hearing something like that. I have to tell him now, I have to get it out._

"I love you, Momon-sama. Ever since you fought Jaldabaoth to save me, I have always loved you!" (Keeno)

"If you are saying this because you think you owe me something for saving you-" (Momon)

"No! That's not it. It's not just your strength, but everything about you! Just hearing your words gave me fulfillment like nothing else in all these centuries. I can accept if a decade from now, you need to be with other women who could bear your children, I just want to be by your side, so please!" (Keeno)

"… Thank you. If you would have somebody like me, I would be glad to accept your love." (Momon)

"Huh!?" (Tanya)

This was not part of her plan, nor was she the only one shocked by Momon's affirmative response. Gagaran and even Keeno herself were similarly wide-eyed. He was supposed to delay answering until the matter with E-Rantel and the Kingdom was settled, making it her goal to pacify the people of the Kingdom herself so she might get her response even a day sooner. Why had he gone against that to accept?

Ignoring Tanya's bewilderment, Momon – Pandora's Actor – continued.

"Unfortunately, I am still busy with the people of this city, and I fear it will only grow worse once trade with the Kingdom reopens. The citizens of the Kingdom will no doubt provoke violence against the Sorcerer King, calling for revenge for the past. Until it is safe for the people of this city, I fear we will not have time to spend together. I apologize." (Momon)

"No, if it's just that, I'll personally convince them that the Sorcerer King means them no harm. I won't let them get in the way of your work, Momon-sama!" (Keeno)

"Keeno-san, thank you. I will be counting on your help, then. Also, there is no need for you to call me that. Please, just call me Momon." (Momon)

"Isn't that great, Keeno? Your first love really did get answered. Now you really don't need to worry about him getting taken away while you're in the Kingdom." (Gagaran)

As Momon took out a handkerchief and knelt down to wipe away Keeno's tears, Gagaran approached from behind, patting her on the back while giving her heartfelt congratulations. Meanwhile, Tanya was frozen, unable to comprehend where she had made a mistake.

_What happened to get us to this sugar-coated atmosphere!? There was no reason he had to actually accept, he could have just pushed the answer off for a few years, with how obsessed she is, she'd probably be fine with waiting a full century! So why? Granted, she looks excited to get to work in the Kingdom now, but is that really enough to justify the risk?_

_ If she ever finds out that Momon is Pandora's Actor, everything, EVERYTHING comes crashing down. Did I mistake what he said? He definitely told me it would be in Momon's character to prioritize the __safety of E-Rantel's citizens over his personal feelings, hence delaying the answer… Hm? Wait, he didn't actually say THAT was in character, did he? Shit, did he misunderstand something Ainz told him and turn it into that? Was he told to accept the love of the people or something? Dammit, I underestimated just how stupidly loyal they a__re__ to his words!_

_Alright, so that's the worst case, is there any chance it doesn't get to that? Maybe since she lied about being a vampire this whole time, she'd accept that he lied about being a doppelganger serving Ainz? As if something that convenient would happen! No, he's a damn good actor, at this point I just have to hope he never lets it slip. If she really does pacify the Kingdom under Ainz's rule and he sleeps with her for it, that's their choice, not my problem._

_ Even if it might be Ainz's mistake for saying something stupid, there's no chance Demiurge or Albedo would accept that, in their mind he can't make a mistake no matter what the does. I hate subordinates who create problems then try to cover them up, but that's the only choice I have left at this point. I've put too much into this to just kill her now, besides Gagaran is here as a witness to all of it… Dammit!_

Completely unaware of Tanya's suffering next to him, Momon continued with the script as if nothing was wrong with the situation.

"Will Blue Rose be returning to the Kingdom now, then? I heard about what happened after the Dracolich escaped from me, but I suppose you still have to report that to the Kingdom." (Momon)

"Yeah, that's the plan. We came here first because Evi- Keeno wanted to meet you again before going back, but we have to get going now. I'm sure the Princess is worrying about us being out of contact for so long, since we had to chase down the Dracolich without the chance to warn them about it first. Sorry to break you two up, though." (Gagaran)

With Keeno now clinging to Momon with no intention of letting go even to respond, Gagaran answered instead. After that, she had to literally peel Keeno off Momon, who was hugging him with inhuman strength.

"Un. Well then, I wish you luck from here on. Please do come visit again when you have the chance." (Momon)

"Of course, I'll teleport back whenever I have the chance, Momon-sa… Momon!" (Keeno)

"I will be looking forward to that as well, Keeno." (Momon)

Finally succeeding at pulling them apart, Gagaran carried Keeno out of the room as she covered her blushing face with her hands. Tanya didn't take a single step until a full minute had passed. Having accepted her mental self-destruction, she followed after them with her head down, without another word to Pandora's Actor or the maids.

* * *

Part 3

Lakyus and the twin assassins were awoken by a crushing hug from a squealing vampire. They had been carried back to the inn by Gagaran prior to heading off to the castle, but had still been asleep. Forcefully woken up with a severe headache, the twins prepared for an ambush, but Lakyus recognized the aggressor as Evileye, differences in appearance aside.

Ignoring the combined pain from her throbbing head and crushed body to the best of her ability, Lakyus tried to ask what was going on. Once Keeno was finally calmed down enough, she and Gagaran explained what had happened last night.

Having resolved everything they had to do in E-Rantel, they agreed to depart for the Re-Estize Kingdom's capital around noon. Instead of wearing the ordinary dress out, Keeno changed back to her personal robes for the defensive enchantments she had added to them decades ago. It didn't seem like the Sorcerer King would care enough to ask for the dress back, so she just packed it away for her memories. The mask she kept off, a symbol for her newfound resolve.

After replenishing their travel supplies, they began packing. Originally, they had gone to E-Rantel with only their equipment and armor, relying on the rations Tanya provided for them, but now they would need to properly bring their own. They could move faster than an ordinary group which had to constantly be on guard for monsters, but it would still take the better part of a week to get all the way back to the capital.

Shortly before they left, they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Not the door to enter the room, but the door leading out to the balcony, on the third floor of the inn.

"Looks like I barely caught you… Sorry if this is sudden, but Ainz-sama requested I accompany you to the Kingdom." (Tanya)

Of course, the only one who could enter from a third floor balcony was Tanya. The timing was not coincidental, but reported to her by one of the Eight Edge Assassins watching over their preparations in the city.

"What do you mean?" (Keeno)

"Albedo-sama was withdrawn from the Re-Estize Kingdom since her supervision was required within Nazarick itself. In her stead, I have been temporarily assigned to the position. Suddenly showing up at the royal palace might cause problems even with a document from Ainz-sama. He suggested I travel with you so you could verify my identity." (Tanya)

This was half-true. Albedo had been recalled because Renner wanted her brother to think that Nazarick was too busy with internal problems to continue with diplomacy. Her power was well-known, so her withdrawing without warning would make him move more openly. When Blue Rose, the last combat-capable force not loyal to him moved out of the city, so he could finally act without resistance.

It might seem strange for Demiurge to continue listening to the requests of Princess Renner like this, but it was a sign of his trust towards her ability. He did have his own backup plan to take over the Kingdom should she betray them, but even in the best case it would take half a decade. With Ainz having vassalized the Empire in a mere three days, him continuing to delay the Kingdom's destruction would be an insult to the trust Ainz had placed in him.

Placing his trust in the ability and desires of the princess, he gave her ready access to Nazarick's resources, within reason. From her position, it would only take her no more than two years to get the Kingdom under her control before handing it off to Ainz in exchange for help fulfilling her wish. Both would benefit from the trade, and Nazarick's goals would be furthered.

Now, that plan was proceeding steadily. In addition to delaying Blue Rose, she had also added on the request to have Tanya accompany them back. Having heard about her from Demiurge, Renner confirmed that she was at least as strong as Evileye, then asked for her to be sent along as well. Using the now vacant position of emissary, he sent Tanya with Blue Rose, though doing so was truthfully slower than her flying alone.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? The Kingdom's citizens still remember Jaldabaoth's attack, many of them having lost family to his minions. If you were to go now, in the worst case you may be attacked in the streets." (Lakyus)

"Even with that being the case, I think it is necessary, or nothing will change. The fastest way to get rid of their preconceptions about undead and demons would be to interact with them. We do not intend to hold the actions of individuals against your country." (Tanya)

Lakyus and Keeno thought about the offer. It was true that with Tanya there, Keeno would draw relatively less attention. To the citizens of the capital, demons had invaded their homes, while vampires were simply creatures of legend. A month ago, they would have suspected this to be a plot to have their own ambassador attacked then declare war, but she herself was promising not to retaliate against harmless attacks.

Provocation or not, the Sorcerer King assigning her as an ambassador meant they didn't have any say in the matter. Her going along with them was likely his way of helping them out, as her being accompanied by adamantite-ranked adventurers might at least give the people a sense of safety. Rather than another unknown monster, the Sorcerer King was sending somebody they knew and could somewhat trust.

"I understand. If you are prepared to accept the risk, we will accompany you to the capital." (Lakyus)

The return trip to the capital was relatively uneventful. This was a series of roads between major cities, frequently used by merchants, or at least had been up until E-Rantel was surrendered to the Sorcerous Kingdom. The Re-Estize Kingdom's half of the road to E-Rantel was no longer actively patrolled, but the monsters which might appear were only at the level of ogres and goblins. Bandits and highwaymen were apparently becoming more frequent, but none were stupid enough to try attacking a group of adamantite-ranked adventurers.

They passed by the city of E-Pespel on the way, but they had no reason to stop, and kept going. There was the option to stop by the castle and request a messenger to be sent ahead to the princess, but the delay required to do so wasn't likely to be worth it. If they were desperate, Keeno would have teleported back to the castle first, but with the long since threat resolved, there was no need to do so.

Princess Renner had her own information network, so she would have already heard that the Death Knights were defeated. While she might be worried about Blue Rose suddenly rushing off in the direction of E-Rantel, she also trusted them to return no matter the threat they faced.

In the end, they arrived at the city of Re-Estize just before sunset a day earlier than planned, due to the good weather. As they approached the gates, they found the entrance unusually busy, a long line of wagons trying to get in, overwhelming the understaffed sentinels.

Fortunately, being adamantite-ranked adventurers led by the noble Lakyus, they could skip past the line to enter the city without being searched or paying an entrance fee. Such would be the normal procedure, but as expected, trying to enter the city with a demon in tow got them held up in the guardhouse by the panicked guards. To his credit, their captain managed to get a cohesive question out.

"Lakyus-sama, what is the meaning of this? Why are you trying to sneak a demon into our capital!?" (Captain)

"… Does this count as sneaking?" (Tia)

"By the order of the Sorcerer King, Ainz-sama, I have been sent here in place of Albedo-sama, who has been transferred elsewhere. Effectively immediately, I am taking over the position of envoy to the Re-Estize Kingdom." (Tanya)

The response was direct and unapologetic. She took out the letter Demiurge had provided, which officially appointed her to the position. Against the guard who just had to follow orders, it was much faster to just throw around her authority than try to explain things. Regardless of her appearance, it would be guaranteed to show results.

As intended, the guards froze the moment she used Ainz's name. Once she finished her explanation, the captain took the letter from her, confirming its contents.

"I understand, however…" (Captain)

"Do you still intend to refuse, captain?" (Tanya)

"No, I apologize, but…" (Captain)

"Is there something happening today which would make it a problem?" (Lakyus)

Lakyus sensed that the captain's unease wasn't due to hostility but worry. Suspecting there might be something they didn't know about, she asked him to confirm.

"That is correct, Lakyus-sama. Since we received word of Jaldabaoth's defeat from the Holy Kingdom, the capital is preparing for a celebration in two days. Most of the Kingdom's nobles have been called to the castle, and a great many merchants are visiting." (Captain)

"That explains the line of wagons in front of the gate, then. So you're concerned that we might cause a panic by walking through the streets?" (Keeno)

"I believe that to be likely, Evileye-sama- Hm?" (Captain)

The captain, whose attention had been drawn to Tanya up until now noticed Keeno's red eyes. He almost missed it, but now understood why she had used the plural 'we'. The captain and his men may not have had much combat training, but they was used to dealing with all sorts of troublesome nobles. They understood the value of keeping their mouths shut, so nobody commented on it.

"What do you want to do, Lakyus? Should we get the Princess to send a carriage for us? Or are the roads too crowded to use now?" (Keeno)

"If I may, we do keep a carriage here for visitors to the castle. While it is somewhat small, it would be much faster than waiting for a carriage to get here from the castle." (Captain)

"I don't mind, but…" (Lakyus)

Lakyus glanced over at the reactions of the others. Keeno nodded to her, while Tanya just shrugged. Gagaran and the twins weren't planning on going anyway, so they didn't respond.

"Then, we'll do that. Can you prepare that carriage for us?" (Lakyus)

"Please wait a few minutes while we prepare it for you." (Captain)

The captain gave a brief bow, then nodded to the men, who rushed off to do so, leaving only the captain himself.

"Still, Albedo-sama is a devil as well, how did she get a royal welcome while we get held up here?" (Tanya)

"You know that you'd have to actually tell them ahead of time for that, right? All things considered, I think this went better than expected." (Gagaran)

"I know, but it was a pretty sudden request on our end as well, and sitting through that sounds like it'd be pointlessly exhausting. The guards here seem pretty well trained, surprisingly so." (Tanya)

The captain continued to watch this exchange, the demon envoy joking around with Blue Rose as if they were old friends.

"What is it?" (Tanya)

Noticing the gaze, Tanya again addressed the captain.

"No, I apologize, but… You aren't at all what I expected a demon to be, Tanya-sama." (Captain)

"Were you expecting another Jaldabaoth, or one of his brainless minions?" (Tanya)

"No, well…" (Captain)

"Lower-ranked demons are probably the ones you're thinking of, they're by far the most common, the sort Jaldabaoth summoned. They just follow their desires and the orders of their summoner, rampaging for the fun of it. High-ranked demons like Albedo-sama are entirely different. Extremely intelligent and rational, in my experience they're even easier to reason with than most humans.

If I had to say, Jaldabaoth is the irregularity, being high-ranked but rampaging without a master. Even other demon lords hated him, but he was always too powerful for them to do anything about it. Though, now that Ainz-sama killed him, he'll be humiliated into submission for a few centuries at least." (Tanya)

This was the story Demiurge had provided for her. Not only would Jaldabaoth be the demon lord to all humanity, but even the enemy of other demons. They would never meet enough other high-ranked demons to disprove the story, and it would allow Demiurge, Albedo, and herself to avoid at least some of the fallout from Jaldabaoth.

Everybody else in the room was listening to Tanya intently, not just the captain. With luck, they would save her some work by spreading the story to others, but looking back it might have been better to explain it while the other soldiers were present. Hopefully, the captain would repeat it to his men just after they left for the castle, then they'd all go drinking to spread the story of the strange visitors. This celebration may be the perfect occasion, though she wasn't sure whether this was something intentionally planned by Renner, or a simple coincidence.

Not long after she finished, the other soldiers came back to report that the carriage was ready for them.

"Well, that's how it is." (Tanya)

While heading for the door, she threw out one last bit of conversation bait for the soldiers, to make sure they would ask the captain what happened.

Lakyus, Keeno, and Tanya got into the carriage, where the driver had apparently already been warned what to expect, as his shock upon seeing them only lasted a moment. Returning his view to the road ahead, he drove them to the castle.

"Still, what did he mean when he said that most of the Kingdom's nobles were in the capital?" (Keeno)

When the wagon started to move, Keeno activated some kind of magic item, then started talking openly. She didn't question Tanya's story, but instead caught on a small comment the guard captain had made.

"Do the nobles here not normally celebrate when a great demon is defeated?" (Tanya)

"It doesn't happen often enough for there to be a standard, but it's still unusual. With how bad the relations between the royalty and nobility are, I can't imagine them just going to a party together." (Lakyus)

Tanya's sarcastic comment got a serious response from Lakyus, who had similarly noticed the irregularity.

"Well, whether it's the Prince planning something or the Princess, it'd be faster to just ask her. I also need to tell her everything that's happened, after all she's done for us." (Keeno)

"How about changing into that dress again, then? I missed out on seeing the honest Keeno-chan that Gagaran was bragging about." (Lakyus)

"Wh-what was she saying? That-" (Keeno)

Keeno started stammering from Lakyus's teasing, recalling how she had acted in front of Momon while wearing that dress. It hadn't just been her appearance, but even her personality had changed with it.

"CZ-san did say that dress had a quick-change effect on it. You could probably just change into it in the carriage, if you wanted. See if the princess will even recognize you." (Tanya)

"Why do you always start working together when it comes to this!?" (Keeno)

In the end, Keeno lost, and was made to change into the dress she had hidden away. The driver was once again surprised when one of the individuals who got out of the carriage was different to the ones who had gone in, but he had been warned by the captain in no uncertain terms not to say anything stupid.

* * *

Part 4

Prince Zanack read the report he had received from the former orichalcum-ranked scouts he had hired. As his eyes reached the bottom of the page, he went back to the top, reading through it once again. Then, to make sure he didn't mistake a single word, he read it all a third time.

For the past two days, they had been following a large group of Death Knights which had appeared from the mountains south of E-Rantel. Their origin and goal were unconfirmed, but there was no doubt those eleven Death Knights possessed at least as much force as the entire Kingdom's army. Assuming the worst, he had gathered what army he could in E-Pespel, preparing the city for a siege.

He already knew that his sister was planning something with them, the gate guards had reported that Blue Rose had arrived in full gear under her summons, then left less than an hour later. The issue he faced was planning for the possibility of their failure, as well as how to handle their success. He had spent the last two days without sleep, waiting for any report from the front, and at last he had received a letter from his scouts.

_After a prolonged fight between Blue Rose and the Death Knights, the Death Knights were quickly destroyed by an unknown demon. The demon's armor bore the emblem of the Sorcerous Kingdom, but could not be identified as any previously witnessed individual. __Following a brief discussion (contents unknown), Blue Rose followed the demon east, in the direction of E-Rantel. The speed of all members made them impossible to track, so we have discontinued pursuit. __Uncertain whether we were spotted by the demon._

How was he supposed to interpret this event? Assuming the demon really was a minion of the Sorcerer King, does that mean the Death Knights weren't? Does that demon have any relation to Jaldabaoth? What had it said to Blue Rose, and why had they followed it afterwards? Were they headed to E-Rantel, or somewhere else entirely? Most importantly, what should he do next?

The only confirmed facts of the situation were that the Death Knights were destroyed, and that both the demon and Blue Rose had left the country. The destruction of the Death Knights could definitely be counted as a success for the Royal Faction, even if he was not the one who accomplished it. Where the nobles had failed to perform any meaningful resistance, Renner's plan had more or less worked. Even if the one to actually win the fight was that demon, his scouts confirmed that there were no other witnesses, so Blue Rose could be given that credit.

Not even Renner should have been able to guess at the arrival of that demon. In other words, he currently had more information than her, and would continue to hold that advantage over her until they returned. Perhaps now, with this advantage against the most powerful unknown, he really could move forward with his plan. If it were now when the core of her information gathering ability was missing from the capital, he might be able to secure the throne.

In order to claim the throne, he would either need the king himself to abdicate willingly, or to gather the six great nobles and have half of them support him over the king. His father was even now holding out hope that Prince Barbro was still alive somewhere, so expecting him to change his mind now was incredibly unlikely, at least not without evidence proving his brother's death. His only remaining choice was to turn to the nobles, who could declare the king incapable of rule due to his age, thereby demanding his abdication.

Most of the preparation were complete, but he continued to wait for a perfect opportunity. He already knew that he had the support of at least half the great nobles, but he still needed the other half to come to the capital to vote against him. If they were to just stay in their territory while he proceeded to claim the throne, they could use that as an excuse to gather their armies in rebellion against him, pushing the already fragmented country into civil war.

His two main opponents were the children of Marquis Bowlrob and Count Ritton who had inherited their titles. Having sent spies into their estates, he now knew that neither of them knew enough about diplomacy to understand that technicality. As long as he had a decent pretense, they would answer an invitation to come to the capital.

Compared to them, he had to pay much more attention to his sister's actions. Renner was a genius capable of doing many things with limited resources, as evident by her extensive network of connections. She may be his ally in name, but as long as she had so much strength behind her personally, he couldn't let his guard down. Were he to rush ahead with his plans, she might seize some weakness of his and take everything for herself.

But now, as the report in front of him had confirmed, Blue Rose had left the capital. The adamantite-ranked party was easily the majority of her strength, as well as her primary source of information. Between Brain Unglaus and Climb she still had more than enough protection to be safe to assassination, but her ability to take actions of her own was significantly hampered without them.

There was only one piece of the puzzle missing before he could put everything into motion: The excuse with which to call the great nobles to the capital. Declaring his intent to force his father's abdication before the nobles were already gathered would be admitting to treason, or could freely be interpreted that way by his enemies.

To his amazement, this last piece fell into his hands the very next day. From the south, messengers stationed at the border with the Holy Kingdom rushed into the castle. Fearing news that the fort had been overrun in a demihuman invasion, he met them with a grim mood, but instead received word that Jaldabaoth was dead, slain by the Sorcerer King.

At last, the enemy who had ravaged the capital was no more. Though the one who had defeated him was the same monster who had annihilated their army, this was some good news at last. The Sorcerer King had largely left them alone after taking E-Rantel, but Jaldabaoth could never be reasoned with, making him the bigger threat in Zanack's eyes.

Reaching for a stack of letters and a pen, he quickly got to work writing a series of invitations, calling nobles and merchants alike to the capital. He took care not to make it sound too hurried, so gave them two weeks to travel to the capital, where they would participate in a grand celebration of the Kingdom's recovery. The great nobles would all be invited to stay at the royal palace for a week, so that all might see the resilience of the Re-Estize Kingdom, the week ending with a city-wide festival.

It had once again turned to night the time he finished writing the letters, sending out messengers to deliver them, and having the news spread throughout the capital. Satisfied with having finally gotten a step ahead of both the nobles who mocked him and his monster of a sister, Prince Zanack dropped into his bed for some well-earned rest.

Tanya's carriage arrived at the castle gates after a short but bumpy ride. Most of the merchant traffic was concentrated around the storehouses in the reconstructed financial district of the capital, while nobles had all arrived at the start of the week. As bad as the traffic looked from outside, the main street was fairly clear, so they only had to stop to let other carriages pass once.

When the carriage stopped, the driver quickly jumped off to say a few words to the castle's gatekeeper. He was obviously surprised, but just rushed off to open the gate and let them through. The carriage again began to move, parking in the courtyard a short distance ahead, right in front of the gate.

Their entrance to the city had been rough, but for everything after that, they were doing everything in their power to avoid causing them any inconvenience. Tanya assumed that they had received strict orders to avoid any possible insult to everybody related to the Sorcerous Kingdom. The fact that these policies were still being enforced weeks after Albedo had left was a clear sign of just how much Prince Zanack feared Ainz Ooal Gown's wrath.

On the way, Lakyus had wrapped up Kilineyram together with its sheath, then gathered most of her armor into a bag. As Keeno had already been changed out of her robes and didn't carry any obvious weapons on her, she had nothing to do. Tanya considered whether she should do the same, but decided against it. She had already stored the rifle away before they approached the city, but there was nothing she could do about the armor.

Despite being covered in dragon scales having the hardness of modern tank armor, the inside of her armor was fine leather as soft as pajamas, so she wore it directly over her bare skin, with nothing underneath it. While she still could have taken the rest of her military equipment off, that would involve removing the piece with Nazarick's emblem, which had saved her a lot of needless trouble. The Type-95 she refused to remove for obvious reasons, not that it would have been recognized as a weapon anyway.

Even if she were to enter the castle naked, her tail was still a functional bladed weapon which could bisect an armored knight. No matter how much she tried to disarm herself there would be no point, so she stopped after putting away the rifle. From the guards' reaction, she didn't expect anybody to say anything to her even she were to carry it openly, so just wearing her armor shouldn't cause an incident.

Since Tanya did not know the way around the castle, she let Lakyus and Keeno get out before her, then followed behind them. There were surprisingly few guards inside the castle, though they did pass by a pair of maids.

Unlike the guards who had been warned about their arrival, these maids were rather shocked to come face-to-face with a demon and vampire just after turning the corner. Both their faces paled, but before either could scream, Keeno cast [Silence] on both of them. She expected it to be easier to calm them down than deal with the commotion after they ran away screaming, but both maids had already fainted.

Unwilling to just leave them there but uncertain of what else to do, Lakyus ended handing her bag of equipment off to Keeno, then carrying the maids to the servants' quarters, only slightly out of their way. After that detour, they arrived at the princess's room. Lakyus knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" (Renner)

"It's me, Renner." (Lakyus)

"Lakyus? Climb, go get the door." (Renner)

After that exchange and a brief pause, the latch on the door clattered before being pulled open from inside, revealing the boy in white armor. He began letting Lakyus in, but froze the moment he saw the two behind her. By reflex, he jumped back while reaching for the sword at his waist.

"Renner-sama, please escape! They're-" (Climb)

"Climb, stand down." (Renner)

"But-" (Climb)

"That's an order. Stand down, now." (Renner)

Confirming the identities of her guests herself, Renner's tone turned uncharacteristically serious. Climb hesitated, but removed his hand from the hilt and let the visitors into the room. Renner's next action shocked him further, however, as she stood up to bow in front of the guests.

"I apologize for the disrespectful actions of my subordinate, Sorcerous Kingdom's Envoy-sama. Please allow me to accept any punishment you wish on his behalf." (Renner)

Upon hearing the identity of the demon he had threatened, Climb realized the severity of his actions. He lowered his head to join his master's apology, fearing not his own punishment, but that Renner might have to take the fault for his mistake.

"Do not worry about it, no harm was done. Please raise your head, Princess." (Tanya)

The two of them followed this formality to resolve the incident quietly. Even if what happened were to leak to somebody outside the room, they had closed the issue in a way that nobody would be able to shift blame. Afterwards, both continued as if nothing had happened, exchanging brief introductions for the sake of appearances. It was their first time meeting in person, though each had already heard about the other from Demiurge.

Keeno tried to speak up now that the conversation was over, but before she could, Renner came up and embraced her. Without waiting for Keeno to respond, Renner started talking.

"I can see you've finally made your decision, Evileye-san… no, Inberun-sama?" (Renner)

Renner's casual statement startled everybody in the room, with the exception of Climb, to whom the name was unfamiliar. Keeno herself had only told her original name to the rest of Blue Rose a few days ago. Even Demiurge had only known that she had been Landfall, but not who Landfall had been.

"Unbelievable." (Tanya)

Renner smiled at the praise (?), giving a brief explanation for Climb's sake.

"Nearly three centuries ago, a certain kingdom was destroyed overnight. At the same time, the vampire known as Landfall first appeared in that same kingdom's palace. From there, the story usually says that Landfall destroyed that country, but with that timing I think it makes more sense to say that Landfall appeared alongside the kingdom's destruction, rather than having caused it. Between her apparent age, her beauty, and her place of residence, it's a simple guess, right? That king's sole daughter, Keeno Fasrith Inberun." (Renner)

She had introduced her own interpretation of legends, speaking of ancient myths with no living witnesses as if they were common truths. She had laid out a path of logic which only she could invent or follow, yet in the end her conclusion was correct. With just a single guess, she had confirmed Landfall's origin.

"No wonder Lakyus is always calling you a genius, you're mostly correct. But, there's a granny who keeps calling me by that name, so just Keeno is fine." (Keeno)

"Then, Keeno-san. Since you're all here, why don't we catch up on everything that's been happening? Ah, Climb, could you get us some tea?" (Renner)

"Are you fine with that, Princess? Having the envoy from a formerly hostile nation here while you exchange military information?" (Tanya)

Tanya threw a provocative question at Renner, trying to gauge her reaction. Even if they were both supposed to be working towards the same goals, it was not simple to suddenly start trusting somebody who even Demiurge admitted was extraordinary.

"Well, I also want to hear about what happened to Albedo-sama after she had to leave so suddenly. We used to have talks over tea just like this." (Renner)

The response was feigned ignorance, delivered with a light smile and gently tilted head. As far as Tanya could tell, Renner had guessed the meaning behind the question, and so gave an answer mocking her for trying. Having made her point, she next gave an answer for the others.

"Just because our countries were once at war, that doesn't mean we cannot become allies in the future. Don't we all look forward to the day the people of the Kingdom can forget their grudges against the Sorcerer King? Showing our trust for each other like this is the first step towards reconciliation." (Renner)

Depending on who was listening, her comments could be described as idealistic, insane, or outright treasonous. The majority of the Kingdom would only recognize Ainz Ooal Gown as the monster who had slaughtered their friends and family like insects. Pragmatic as it may be, they would not even begin to consider forgiveness, let alone alliance. Even hearing that he had defeated Jaldabaoth in some distant land would not change their minds about that. Without personally witnessing it, most would not believe that undead or demons could be anything except enemies.

Few even among the nobility and royalty had understood how dire the Kingdom's situation had become as a result of the Empire's annual wars. By timing their invasions to overlap the harvest season, the Kingdom would be forced to conscript much of the manpower which farming villages desperately needed.

Year after year, the Kingdom's power waned, to the point where the Empire might have been able to conquer E-Rantel without the aid of Ainz Ooal Gown. Objectively speaking, those most responsible for the Kingdom's downfall were not the Sorcerer King and his minions, but the Kingdom's own nobility, who were continuing to drive the Kingdom into the ground to this very day with their infighting and general incompetence.

In Renner's mind, an upheaval was necessary, one which would show the people the failure of their own nobility, as well as the grace of the Sorcerer King. In the Holy Kingdom, even those undead-hating extremists had been converted into his loyal followers. Their own nobility had been overrun by Jaldabaoth's invasion, meanwhile they had been saved by the being which was supposed to be their hated enemy. After that, a single squire had converted them into devout believers who no longer saw Ainz Ooal Gown as a monster, but as an immortal god.

Recreating that exact result was probably impossible, but she may be able to do something similar to at least build a foundation. If she could wipe out her opposition with the same action, all the better. Certainly, it would require some sacrifices, many of whom held no fault of their own, but something like that hardly mattered. The important thing was that the end result would bring her closer to granting her wish.

Now that her brother had assembled all the pieces she needed, Demiurge had lent her all the cards she would use, and the grand stage that is the capital city was set, she just had to wait a bit longer.

Climb briefly stepped out into a side room, searching for the Princess's favorite tea set. Normally this task would fall onto the maids assigned to serve her, but she instead asked him to do so. Whether this was because she was worried about them saying something inappropriate, or because she did not want anybody else to hear the contents of the conversation, he could not tell.

It was not his place to question her orders. More importantly, she had told him to do it, so he would do it to the best of his ability. Without hesitation, he picked out the most expensive tea she kept, setting it on a tray along with a small jar of sugar, a gift from foreign merchants from south of the kingdom. Returning to the room, he set the tray on the table in front of Renner before taking his place behind her again. Thanking him for bringing the tea, Renner poured a cup for everybody present.

Renner was listening to Lakyus and Keeno, who were in the process of retelling the story of the Death Knights and Dracolich. Unexpectedly, despite Keeno's confidence prior to leaving, the first fight had been their complete defeat. As they found out at the start of the battle, the Death Knights had been under the effect of high-tier enhancement magic, while also being coordinated by some unknown means.

"There exists a spell known as [Undeath Slave Sight]. While I am not aware of the details, it allows one undead to see through the eyes of other undead under its control. With that, the Dracolich could control them while hiding in the mountains." (Tanya)

Tanya gave a hint as to how the Death Knights could be coordinated from such a distance, though it was really more of an excuse. They were her undead, not the Dracolich's, so naturally she had been the one giving them orders from above. She had simply hovered 100 meters above the scene of the fight, using magic to make herself invisible while doing so.

Since Tanya was not sure whether Evileye would have the ability to see through simple invisibility, she opted for the 5th tier [Greater Invisibility] instead, expecting she would not have learned countermeasures for a spell no normal human could ever use. Once the battle started, it was clear that Evileye would not have the spare magic to search for invisible opponents who may not be there, thus she switched back to 3rd tier [Invisibility] after the first scroll's effect duration ran out.

Like this, they continued to describe the few weeks after fighting the Death Knights. Lakyus would outline the story, while Keeno and Tanya would occasionally step in with specialized details. Renner was enjoying the story as if it were another heroic tale, but to Climb it was a chance to get a glance at Tanya's power.

During the war, Gazef Stronoff had sacrificed himself to give Climb and Brain the chance to see Ainz Ooal Gown's power, yet before either of them could see any change, Gazef was already dead. The battle had ended, and they had lost their only chance to look for any sort of weakness. Now, perhaps he might have gotten that chance again, but the only conclusion he reached is that he could never beat her, perhaps not even with the entire Kingdom behind him.

Just how many monsters capable of wiping out armies served the Sorcerous Kingdom? Even this young girl drinking tea together with them was on the level of a legendary undead, one who the infamous Landfall admitted she couldn't hope to match.

Climb knew he wouldn't be able to beat either of them, but it was his responsibility to defend Princess Renner against her enemies, no matter who they might be. Her kindness and willingness to trust anybody were part of her brilliance, but they were also why she needed to be protected. Perhaps she might be able to build trust with these monsters, but should she fail, it would fall onto him to make sure she alone can escape, even at the cost of his own life.

The story went on about the night they arrived in E-Rantel. Before she could get to the incident at the bar, Keeno and Tanya simultaneously and suddenly stood up, facing off against the section of wall just to the right of the door.

"What's wrong?" (Lakyus)

Lakyus recognized their reaction as a sign that she should also get on guard, though she was uncertain what she should be on guard against.

"Something just activated an absurd amount of magic power. Might be 9th or 10th tier, I can't guess at-" (Keeno)

The warning came too late, as before Keeno could finish the entire castle shook with a percussive blast. She and Tanya were already prepared for it, while Climb staggered but barely stayed on his feet, Lakyus nearly thrown from her chair. Renner was not as lucky, getting thrown backwards into Tanya, who happened to be standing behind her.

_Marquis Raeven, nobody else._

As the Princess was knocked into her arms, Tanya heard a whispered voice, just loud enough to reach her own ears. There was no need to ask who had spoken, nor for her to give a response. She set back Renner on her feet, then began to act.

"What is there in the castle in that direction?" (Tanya)

"… The audience chamber. That's where Onii-sama's meeting was supposed to be taking place." (Renner)

"Get away from the castle as fast as you can. Keeno, you know the way around the castle, lead the way to the audience chamber. The rest of you, get out with the Princess." (Tanya)

Tanya may not have had any official authority over those here, but she naturally took command of the situation. Lakyus grabbed her bag of equipment while Keeno pulled her robe over the dress. Quick-change effects only worked in one direction, so that was the best she could do without stopping to change. She and Tanya led the way up to the corridor where they would split off from the others, when Renner spoke pleadingly once more.

"Tanya-sama, please… Onii-sama-" (Renner)

The last words were mouthed rather than spoken, but there was only one ending which wouldn't contradict her last order. _What a monster,_ thought Tanya while running in the opposite direction after Keeno.

* * *

Part 5

Marquis Raeven raced on his horse, its steps becoming increasingly ragged as it grew exhausted.

In his desperation to escape, he had already thrown away his sword and stripped off his prized armor, tossing it aside to lose a bit more weight.

The orichalcum-ranked adventurers whom he had come to think of as friends had gone to slow it down, but to no avail.

He had been clinging to the horse's back for minutes, hours, he could no longer tell.

No matter how much time passed, it was not stopping, only getting closer with every quaking step.

"MEEEEEEHHHH!"

Raeven woke up covered in sweat.

Every night, it was the same dream of that horrid day. Half a year had passed since then, but he still saw them every night. He had long since given up trying to sleep next to his wife or son, lest they become unable to sleep properly like him.

At least the nightmares were now only a thing of the night, so he could once again do his job during the day. On that day, he fled from the Katze Plains as far as his horse would take him, then continued to flee on his own feet once his horse collapsed underneath him.

The next time he woke up, he was sleeping in his territory. After being missing for two weeks, his own border guard found him while patrolling near the edges of his territory, starved and disheveled. He had miraculously survived, but it was not for another month that he could get out of bed, then two more months before he could take on his duties.

He knew that they should have listened to Gazef's warnings. No matter how much their pride yelled at them, no matter how difficult it might be for the Royal Faction to surrender E-Rantel, they should have listened. Even if he had demanded half the country, that undead magic caster was not somebody they should have antagonized.

Long ago, his sole goal had been improving his own status and fortune. There was a time he tried to take the throne for himself, though he never got far enough in his plotting to seriously take action. His marriage had been purely political, at least at first, but his ambition broke down the first time his infant son grabbed on to his finger. After that, his only desire was leaving the domain to his son.

If the kingdom collapsed to external threats, there would be no territory to hand down. If the factional struggles plunged the country into war, he could not proudly let his son inherit the ruined territory which would come out. In this most dire time for the kingdom, he could not continue to sit around crying to himself about the past.

To his pleasant surprise, Prince Zanack had been hard at work during his recovery. Even without his help, Zanack had slowly but gradually been working closer to the throne, building allies with Princess Renner's help.

Prior to the start of the war, Prince Barbro was sent to Carne Village in an effort to keep him in a safe place, but neither the Prince nor his army had been heard from since. Five thousand men had accompanied him, and every single one of them had vanished from the surface of the planet. To Raeven, only confirmation of his death could have made for better news. This should have marked the end of the succession conflict, but still the King wouldn't accept his son's death, and refused to let Prince Zanack succeed the throne until Prince Barbro was found, dead or alive.

Unlike Prince Barbro, both Prince Zanack and Princess Renner had remained under guard in the castle, so they had not personally witnessed the monstrosities that Ainz Ooal Gown had called forth by sacrificing the Kingdom's army. Princess Renner was one thing, but if Prince Zanack had been on those plains, his sanity might never have recovered. He could at least be glad for these small mercies.

After Raeven managed to regain his determination, he began digging through the piles of paperwork which had gathered. He had some capable subordinates working for him who could handle domestic affairs in his absence, but there was little they could do outside the territory while he was incapable. Now, with several days work behind him, he could finally count the number of piles remaining.

The next morning, he once again woke up drenched in sweat, well before the first light of the sun. Washing himself off, he set off for his office to get back to work. On the way, he was stopped by one of the night watchmen, who had received two letters bearing the prince's seal. Thanking the soldier for his work, Raeven took the letters and returned to his office, which was carefully protected against magical eavesdropping.

Opening the first letter and scanning the contents, he inadvertently scoffed at the contents. Lathering praise, promises of gifts, and fine wine, a week-long party for the nobility in the royal capital. He barely made it halfway through the letter before tossing it aside, tearing open the second letter in search of the reason the Prince would send him this joke of a letter. His annoyance turned to serious contemplation. The Prince was making his move.

The first letter had been sent out primarily to minor nobles, second and third sons who suddenly got the wealth their older brothers had monopolized placed before them. They were backups at best, lacking even the most primitive knowledge of diplomacy. Many among them would consider a prince who would pander to them like this to be a good friend, never stopping to consider why he might choose to do so.

The second letter was likely sent only to a few individuals, personally selected by the Prince. This letter requested their attendance at a debate to determine the future of the Re-Estize Kingdom. It was not an outright confession, but anybody who read between the lines would recognize what he really meant. No doubt, he was going to call for the abdication of his father, the King.

Marquis Raeven was the only noble who had been sent both letters, not by mistake but to show him the full picture, so he might better prepare. Though they had not spoken in months, Prince Zanack evidently still trusted Raeven to support his play for the throne.

Indeed, he had no time to spare. His territory did not border the capital, so the messenger had taken some time to arrive. The real meeting was not even two weeks away, and by his estimates, this would just barely be enough time for him to prepare everything he needed. Penning a brief letter for his wife and son, he slipped it under her door. It was truly unfortunate that he had to leave without a word like this, but right now he could not spare even the few hours it would be until they woke up, nor could he bear to disturb their peaceful sleep.

Together with the few retired adventurers he had remaining in his employ, he set off for the capital.

The news had already spread throughout the entire capital by the time he arrived. Curiously, though the Prince's letter hadn't mentioned it, it was common knowledge in the capital that the one who had defeated Jaldabaoth was the Sorcerer King himself, who had gone to save the Holy Kingdom at the request of their paladins.

Raeven wasn't sure if there was much meaning to the difference, though he had a hunch that it was something the Princess had spread. In the end, he decided not to think much of it, since the Princess was already working with them to get Prince Zanack onto the throne. She was probably trying to lessen the people's hate for Sorcerer King, so that they might avoid any possibility of future hostilities. Even without witnessing Ainz Ooal Gown's power personally, she should understand well enough the difference in power between the two kingdoms.

There was no real way for the Re-Estize Kingdom to claim any sort of credit for Jaldabaoth's demise. Prince Zanack had gained popularity by personally acting during the defense of the capital, and while this may have saved some people, trying to argue that this had any effect on Jaldabaoth himself would just be seen as mocking those who died or were taken. Princess Renner's choice to take what little benefit they could get was the correct one.

He had unfortunately lost many of his ex-adventurers, both guards and spies. Only a few remained, and he had not had a chance to search for more retired adventurers given his state up until now. Those few had been scattered around the capital to gather as much information as he could, but there was surprisingly little to hear.

Hearing that Jaldabaoth was dead would not bring back the loved ones his demon hordes had killed or kidnapped, but they could at least know that nobody else would be attacked like they had been. So, the people celebrated. The Kingdom may not be truly safe, but at least there was one less invincible monster threatening their homes.

As for the nobles, Marquis Raeven went to the castle on the first day of celebration to greet Prince Zanack, but did not stay for long after that. That part of the week was just bait to get their opponents to come to the capital, there was little to gain from attending every day of it.

During his visit, Raeven had tried to visit the King, but had been turned away. He couldn't be sure whether or not the King had caught on to what they were planning, but they wouldn't see him until the King's planned appearance on the fourth day, when Prince Zanack would ask his father to retire. If the King just accepted it would end there, otherwise the Prince would have to call for his abdication.

Princess Renner was also notably absent from the celebration, not even appearing alongside the Prince on the first day. When Raeven later asked the Prince where she was, he was told that she had was apparently worried about her friends from Blue Rose and hadn't left her room for the past few days.

This was news that Raeven hadn't even heard prior to his arrival in the capital. He once again lamented the loss of his ex-adventurer subordinates, who would normally have reported that sort of thing. His own network had been stretched too thin because of those losses, so Prince Zanack preventing the news from spreading to avoid an international incident had been enough to keep it from Marquis Raeven's ears as well.

Raeven was confused as to why Prince Zanack would still move forward like this without her support, but couldn't openly ask during the party without the risk of needlessly leaking information. The few words exchanged between Marquis Raeven and Prince Zanack before he left were just the Prince congratulating him on his recovery.

When the fourth day came, everything went according to plan. The King arrived to give his greetings, and all the remaining great nobles were in attendance. Prince Zanack suggested that with the immediate threat resolved, now would be a good chance for the King to retire from ruling.

The King praised Prince Zanack for everything he had done for the Kingdom, but continued to insist that such a decision shouldn't be made until they learned what happened to his elder brother, Prince Barbro. This much was still within expectations, so Prince Zanack continued, and called for the nobles present to decide whether the King should abdicate.

Many of the minor nobles present were obviously shocked, but the King himself only looked at his son with a somber expression. He accepted that the discussion would take place the next day, then retired to his bedroom.

Raeven looked around to get an idea of how the other nobles were responding. The new heads of house Bowlrob and Ritton were both blindsided by the announcement, which was to be expected given their inexperience.

Far more surprising were Marquis Pespeya and his wife, the First Princess. He had been prepared for some opposition from them, but both acted as if expecting it. Even Margrave Urovana stayed silent, despite being an old friend and loyal supporter of the King, who had always supported Prince Barbro for the throne.

If it were like this, the Prince would succeed, thought Raeven. Those who opposed him had little in the way of means to do so, while those who he had to watch out for saw the necessity of these actions. Then came the fifth day, when everything would fall to pieces.

There was no set format for this event, even though the requirements for calling it were well-defined. In the Re-Estize Kingdom's centuries of history, it has only ever been used as a threat, never actually put into motion. They only knew that those present – the King excluded – would decide together whether the King should abdicate in favor of Prince Zanack.

Marquis Raeven and Zanack both knew their first play should be to decide on a voting method which would be to their advantage. The ambiguity originating from the lack of precedent meant that this too was up for debate, and so they needed to make sure their opponents couldn't call for a unanimous decision.

When everybody gathered at noon to begin the debate, Bowlrob was notably absent. They were initially worried that Bowlrob and Ritton were boycotting the meeting to discredit Zanack's claim to the throne, but even Ritton seemed to be clueless as to Bowlrob's whereabouts. After confirming that he was missing from his room and giving him an extra twenty minutes just in case, they started without him.

The debate itself continued as they had hoped. Without even Bowlrob to support him, Ritton was alone and utterly unprepared. There were a couple capable individuals in the Noble Faction, but so many had been killed during the war that it really was only one or two.

As a result of the war, the Royal Faction was undeniably worse off politically, having raised and lost such a large army before having to cede E-Rantel anyway. However, most of the key figures among the royalty were still alive, while the same could not be said about the nobles. When it came to this sort of debate, they were quickly being cornered by Zanack and his supporters.

Since even the members of the Royal Faction who were expected to continue supporting the King instead agreed that Zanack should inherit, the goal for them instead became winning without harming the rest of the Royal Faction. Considering that the four of them were now putting this into motion without any communication ahead of time, it was going exceptionally well.

By the time the sun began to set, Ritton and the Noble Faction were running out of options. The King was all but set to retire due to his advanced age, and Prince Zanack was the only contender for his successor. Having wound up as the effective representative of the Noble Faction, Ritton was pressed to either come up with another counterargument or to concede defeat.

Before he had the chance to do either, the front door crashed open, revealing Bowlrob's figure. Unlike yesterday's Bowlrob, who had been neatly dressed and well-groomed, he looked ragged enough to have been running around the capital for all these hours. Even if he was also one of the great nobles, this sort of disrespect was unforgivable. The first to call him on this was Margrave Urovana.

"What is the meaning of this, Marquis Bowlrob? You abandon this meeting without warning, then barge in at its conclusion? Have you gone mad?" (Urovana)

"Shut up!" (Bowlrob)

In response to Urovana's legitimate complaint, Bowlrob yelled his defiance. Even Ritton was drawing away from him at this point, his vassals watching him with pale faces.

Had he gone mad? From the look in his eyes, they thought he might have.

"Hey, Zanack. I have just one question for you. How will you defeat Ainz Ooal Gown?" (Bowlrob)

Zanack hesitated, but answered the question. Bowlrob's attitude thus far was already enough to have him thrown out of the meeting, but letting him stay might do the Noble Faction more harm than good. Letting him keep talking would mean him digging himself into a hole and dragging all his supporters down into it.

"… I believe it foolish to even attempt doing so. The Sorcerous Kingdom's envoy has made it clear that they have no further interest in invading our Kingdom. Trying to attack a dragon just because it is resting would be a mistake." (Zanack)

He had made this policy very clear ever since Albedo first arrived. Even the slightest disrespect against the Sorcerer King would not be forgiven, lest they draw his wrath back to the Re-Estize Kingdom. He would gladly pay tribute if it could buy the Kingdom's safety from not only the Sorcerous Kingdom itself but also the Empire, its vassal state.

"I knew it, you really are spineless. You'd kneel before that monster after it killed my father, it slaughtered our armies and trampled over our very kingdom's pride. Even though we had the solution sitting in the capital this entire time, you never used it. Don't pretend you don't know about it now, one of my friends in the Eight Fingers told me about it, so we went and stole it this morning!" (Bowlrob)

By this point, Zanack was struggling to avoid breaking out into a grin. Bowlrob's rambling had passed beyond simply rude into an outright admission of treason. This wouldn't end with just humiliation, it was enough to see him executed.

On the other hand, Raeven's nervousness was growing in the pit of his stomach. Even Bowlrob would know what it would mean to say all of this, this couldn't possibly end with just words. Whatever hand he had yet to play, it would be something he thought could get him out of this.

For the duration of the meeting, guards had intentionally been kept away from the entrance to the audience hall to avoid information spreading, but the commotion caused by Bowlrob had been enough to draw a concerned patrol back to the room.

"Guards, seize Marquis Bowlrob immediately!" (Raeven)

He called out to the patrol, but they were too confused by the sudden order to act on it without hesitation. It was already too late.

Bowlrob pulled out a small statue of a four-armed demon. Each pair of arms held a small jewel between them, one purple and the other orange.

Zanack briefly recalled reading a report of a certain statue of a three-armed demon holding three jewels found in one of the Eight Fingers' hideouts. There were some small differences, but there was far too much of a resemblance for it to be a mere coincidence.

Before anybody could reach him, Bowlrob lifted the statue above his head and activated it. The purple jewel pulsed once before shattering into powder. A violet tear in space appeared between Bowlrob and the rest of the nobles.

From that tear, a thick crimson arm rose up to grab the ground, then another next to it. Pulling itself up through the tear, it rose to its full height of nearly five meters, spreading a pair of flaming wings behind it.

All across its body, scars of various sizes were clearly visible, revealing the magma-like blood beneath its dark skin. One of its horns had been cleanly broken off, while the other had a large crack running up its length. It appeared severely injured, but nobody in the room thought such a thing would make a difference. A weak flame coated its body, but it could be felt across the room.

From the gate into the netherworld that Bowlrob had apparently opened, an archdevil rose. It slowly ran its gaze across the members of the room, the various royals and nobles who were trembling from its glance. At last, its vision settled on Bowlrob, who was trembling behind it while wearing a victorious smirk.

"Now, I-" (Bowlrob)

Before he could get more than a couple words out, the demon swung its massive arm out, crushing Bowlrob into the ground. The entire building shook as the demon's arm left a sizeable red crater in the ground where Bowlrob had been standing. The demon then bent down to pick up the statue next to it, delicately holding it between two fingers before setting it on its other palm and standing back up.

"To think the escape route I left behind would be opened so quickly… Perhaps I should spare you fools for helping me to get away from the Undead King… No, I still need you to be sacrifices for my revival."

Although the demon was examining the statuette in its hand rather than sparing them any attention, none attempted to flee. Most were entirely unable to move in front of the demon, crushed by the aura of pressure it was letting off. Even for those who could, there was nowhere for them to escape to: The demon was standing where Bowlrob had entered, in front of the only door into the room.

"This item is not for the likes of humans to possess. The last time I was here Momon's presence forced me to leave without much gain, but he is no longer here. Similarly, the Undead King is not in this country to drive me out. Now, there is nothing left to save your capital from my hordes. Rejoice, humans. I will allow you to witness the power of this item as it turns your kingdom into a flaming ruin."

The demon slowly took step after step until it was in the center of the room. As if the nobles had all been gathered here to hear it speak, it continued its monologue. With its declaration of ruin, the demon dramatically raised the statuette to the level of its own eyes, staring into the remaining orange jewel.

"Trample them, my demon army! [Armageddon Evil]!"

As before, the orange jewel shattered when the demon announced its spell. Unlike before, a vortex of darkness formed around the demon, from which black bubbles fell onto the ground. These bubbles took the form of deformed inferior demons, flooding the room with over a hundred demons.

Individually, they were weak enough to be beaten back by a few of the castle guard, but their opponents were unarmed nobles, and their numbers would not allow for such hope. Under the archdevil's orders, these demons did not actively attack, only seeking to crush their defenseless opponents with their weight. Yet, the nobles could only tremble as the demons shambled towards them.

Before the demons could reach their targets, a section of the wall was blasted apart, from which a pale shot struck the huge demon. Although it did not appear particularly injured, it turned its attention to the broken wall, stopping its demons in the process. From the hole in the wall, another demon walked into the room, this one notably smaller than the one standing in the center.

"So, just what is going on here?" (Tanya)

* * *

Part 6

Tanya raced through the labyrinthian hallways of the royal castle, following behind Keeno. From what Renner had said, it was safe to assume that both Zanack and Raeven would be in the audience hall, also the center of the magic.

In her mind, detecting these sorts of pulses of magic was a far simpler task than identifying other aerial mages, who might be trying to hide their signals. When mages were another part of a military organization, it was necessary for them to encrypt their communications, minimize their signal output, and only emit the bare minimum magic needed to fight. Anybody without at least that much discipline would just be a flying beacon for enemy snipers and artillery.

There was no need to apply the same standards to magic casters in this world. They would almost never be integrated directly into the rest of an army, and even the Slane Theocracy supposedly preferred using dedicated units made up of magic casters. If she put in the effort to look for signals, locating even a 2nd tier spell in the same city wouldn't be too difficult a task for Tanya.

With that as her standard, there was of course no way she would miss a second 10th tier spell in the same building. Even through a few walls, its source would glow in her view like a second sun. Getting to the entrance would take a while longer, but speaking in absolute terms, they were already close enough.

Deciding that the situation warranted taking a shortcut, she raised her rifle to open one. Taking aim at the origin of the magic, she fired a blast through the remaining obstacles. A far more direct path now available to them, Tanya went straight towards the source, with Keeno now being the one to follow behind. Stepping through the series of holes and into the audience hall, she looked around to assess the situation.

_Demiurge told me this plan was left to Renner, but any way you look at it that's one of his demons. An Evil Lord? Not exactly the same as his Evil Lord of Wrath on the 7__th__ floor, but perhaps a slightly weaker variant of it. If something like that were to seriously try to kill me, I'd __definitely __have to run away, but it's probably here to act the part of the enemy. It went and stopped its attack when we arrived, so I should let it tell its story first._

"So, just what is going on here?" (Tanya)

As intended, the full attention of everybody in the room had turned to her. The Evil Lord examined the two of them, but did not immediately prepare to fight despite having already been attacked once. This alone confirmed her theory that it was not a random demon, but one summoned by Demiurge or another demon in Nazarick.

"Hm… One of the Undead King's minions, and… the unintelligent woman without a mask? Yet, neither your master nor Momon-san are here with you." (Evil Lord)

"Impossible… Jaldabaoth?" (Keeno)

Keeno gave the demon's identity, or more precisely, the role it was playing.

"I had thought this city would only be useful as fodder for my hordes, but it looks like there are worthwhile prizes here after all. The Undead King took away the maids I had bound over the centuries, so I shall respond in kind by seizing his servants." (Evil Lord)

While letting the Evil Lord continue its monologue, Tanya glanced over to the waiting nobles. The Evil Lord would not start fighting without any warning, but she had to be in position to shield Marquis Raeven before then. Renner wanted only him to survive, so she couldn't just take the fight elsewhere, but she also had to be discreet so Renner's role wasn't revealed to Keeno, who would be the witness to what happened afterwards.

She had only gotten a description without a picture, but he stood out enough to identify at a glance. Having overcome his fear of death enough to flee the Dark Young, he was now the only one among the nobles not paralyzed by the Evil Lord's presence. While the demons all had their attention turned away, he alone was desperately looking for a way out.

"I'd heard about you from Ainz-sama, but the way he described it, you were supposed to be nearly his equal. Looking at you now, I find that hard to believe." (Tanya)

"You are correct. Without a doubt, the Undead King was my superior when he was at his full power. His planning in the Holy Kingdom was perfect, and I should have been destroyed there. Yet, it appears even he could not predict how foolish the nobles of this country would be. I had to regress to this form to recover from those wounds, but this much strength should still be sufficient to subdue this country." (Evil Lord)

Raeven took the chance to run along the side of the room, where the deformed demons were relatively few. Not one of them paid attention to him until he ran past them and fell to his knees next to Keeno, at which point the Evil Lord waved his hand, commanding the demons to form a full wall behind him. Tanya wasn't sure whether it knew that part of the plan, but his self-saving action saved her some effort. Now, she would just have to let the rest get caught up in the collateral damage. With a mocking glance at Raeven, Tanya continued her provocation.

"The nobles of this kingdom, huh… Well, that hardly matters now. I cannot begin to guess what Ainz-sama was planning, but is his sending me here not because he was aware that you had escaped? I simply need to kill you here and everything will be resolved." (Tanya)

"You? A fledgling devil would kill the Demon Emperor? Even if I am weakened, do you believe I would fall so easily?" (Evil Lord)

"Not easily, but I would not say it if I didn't mean it. Well, I would prefer a more open area than this room. Would you mind starting this above the city instead? I believe Ainz-sama asked the same thing of you in the Holy Kingdom." (Tanya)

"A wide-open space? Very well, I do not mind. However, rather than changing locations, would it not be faster to create one here?" (Evil Lord)

"Create one?" (Tanya)

"[Crystal-" (Keeno)

"[Field of Unclean]!" (Evil Lord)

Infernal flames exploded from the Evil Lord's body, engulfing not just the entire room, but spreading through to the rest of the castle. Keeno's attempt to put a wall between him and the others came too late, only rising out of the ground after their view was already filled with a blinding conflagration. The wall which came out could only melt helplessly from the flames of hell coating it.

When the flames died down a few seconds later, neither the room nor its contents remained. Only the Evil Lord stood unharmed at the center of a scorched crater, standing opposite to a small circle centered around Tanya. Keeno and Raeven had been included in the volume of her heat-isolation shell, but behind them not even the frame of the door they had entered or the hallways behind it could be found.

Beyond the immediate range of the crater, the rest of the castle was similarly draped in flames. Besides the explosive force of the 10th tier spell [Field of Unclean] which erased the room they were in, everything within the area of a small field had combusted. Anything that could burn was burning, while the explosion itself had thrown around flaming debris from the central audience hall, which fell back down to spread destruction over a wider area still. In the game, the spell had only ever been a simple wide-range area-of-effect attack which couldn't affect the environment, but when applied in reality, a castle built with human sieges in mind stood no chance against its power.

The demons summoned by the Evil Lord were no exception, as low-level demons only possessed resistance against fire, rather than immunity. In their place, a new vortex formed up around the Evil Lord, now dropping into the form of humanoid mantis-like demons.

"How about this? Much more open, is it not? Now, I will allow these children to rampage through the capital, so shall we take to the sky and begin to kill each other?" (Evil Lord)

"Keeno. Take him and fly away from the castle. Lakyus should have already gotten out of the castle and gathered some defenses. Join up with them, and don't let those demons into the city." (Tanya)

As Tanya took a step forward towards the Evil Lord, Keeno could only watch from behind. It was obvious to her that just as Jaldabaoth had said, she was no match for him no matter how weakened he had become. Just like the first time she had encountered him, she was powerless against him. They may not look anything alike, but for a moment Keeno imagined Momon's stalwart figure standing in front of her rather than the small demon.

"Can you defeat him?" (Keeno)

"It's my job, after all. I can do this much." (Tanya)

Keeno nodded, then pulled Raeven's trembling body over her shoulder. He wasn't difficult to lift with her strength, but still a considerable burden. Without another word, she flew off towards the castle town.

With a wave of its hand, the Evil Lord sent the mantis demons running after her. They could have flown instead, but he intentionally had them run instead to give her a head start. The wave of 64 Hell Scythes perfectly split in two, running past either side of Tanya without disturbing her.

Once the clicking of their limbs could no longer be heard over the roaring of the flames around them, Tanya prepared herself as well. She wasn't sure whether this Evil Lord really was weaker than a normal one. It appeared to be wounded, but those might be purely cosmetic rather than functional.

At its full strength, it was level 84, over twice her level. Normal attacks wouldn't even leave a scratch, no matter how good her equipment was. The bare minimum duration to set up a formula which could harm the Evil Lord was five seconds. As a physical attacker which could continuously fly and teleport after her, it could simply continue interrupting her attacks while beating her into submission. In a real fight, she could only try to run away without any hope of defeating it.

An Evil Lord's magic attacks were based around fire, negative energy, and mental attacks, all of which were largely ineffective against demons. On the other hand, her attacks would use pure mana, which did not exist in the game and as such was largely irresistible. She had the advantage in everything aside from level, but the gap was simply too large for a fair fight.

Thankfully, this was not a real fight, but another theater production. Rather than trying to win the fight, the Evil Lord was likely intended to lose after an impressive-looking fight over the capital. Though the enemy wasn't under her control this time, the nature of the fight was not much different from the Dracolich.

Driving the Type-95 to its full output, she began to stack every support formula she could to close the immeasurable physical gap between them slightly. With this strong an opponent, she still had to take the utmost caution to avoid accidentally being killed by mistake.

"Shall we begin then? It's time to show the power of the subordinates of Ainz-sama." (Tanya)

"Then, allow me to make the first move." (Evil Lord)

All her enchantments and support formulae only allowed her to see the Evil Lord moving for a fragment of a second before its titanic fist struck against her shell.

A part of her was still afraid that Demiurge was setting her up to die by sending in such an opponent, then use her to justify a war afterwards, but the Evil Lord's first attack cleared those worries.

_Weak. Way too weak for how heavy its attack should have been. Even if I can't evade these attacks, if it holds back this much it won't break through my shell. __Alright, now I know it won't hurt me much. Time to get to work._

Instead of resisting, she rode the strike into the sky, flying back several hundred meters until she was over the center of the capital. Activating her own flight to take over from the momentum, she returned fire towards the Evil Lord which had risen into the sky on its flaming wings.

As the citizens of the capital stood in the streets watching their castle burn, the fight between two demons began to unfold in the skies above them. With the last light of the setting sun, the people gazed up to witness the last of Jaldabaoth's legendary battles.

Without taking a single look back, Keeno flew towards the front gate as fast as she could manage, all the while trying to keep Raeven from slipping out of her grip. At the front gate, a mix of civilians and adventurers were gathered, being kept away from the castle by a vastly outnumbered group of guards just past the gate. Among their number she spotted Lakyus, Renner, and Climb, who had reached the gate but could not leave due to the gathered crowd outside.

Deciding to start by clearing away the civilians and guards who would be overrun by the mantis demons, she amplified her voice with magic to give a warning.

"I am Evileye from Blue Rose. Due to actions by one of the nobles, the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth has been summoned to the castle. A group of mantis-like demons are currently headed this way. All non-combatants and adventurers below mithril rank should immediately get away from this area. Everybody else, prepare to defend at this gate!" (Keeno)

The warning naturally caused some confusion amongst the crowd, but Jaldabaoth's name was enough to get them to start running away. It was true that some would get trampled, but getting them out quickly was still better than letting them get in the way once the demons reached the gate.

The crowd quickly thinned out, leaving only four people on the opposite side of the gate. The rest of Blue Rose were still on their way, but she immediately recognized one man. Wearing the Kingdom's treasure sword Razor Edge at his waist, Brain Unglaus remained at the gate without hesitation.

Though she had never seen him seriously fight, he was said to be Gazef Stronoff's equal as a warrior. The sword which was supposed to be returned after the Kingdom's surrender instead stayed with him at Renner's suggestion, at least until he could find somebody else qualified to take over the position of Warrior Captain.

Renner had insisted that so long as the Kingdom had enemies like Jaldabaoth, it was better for the weapon to stay in the hands of one who could use it. The nobles would not bend on the other treasures, but Razor Edge was given to Brain for the time being. Now, it appeared that her judgment was indeed spot-on.

Aside from him, there was one guard who rushed up to see Marquis Raeven, who Keeno had dropped on the ground next to the gate. Figuring him to be one of Raeven's guards, she left him alone. The other two were adventurers she did not immediately recognize, but both wore orichalcum plates, so they should be capable enough.

"Keeno-san, what happened in the audience hall? Where is everybody else?" (Renner)

The princess wrapped her hands around Keeno's, asking the question with a pleading voice. Even in such a situation, she didn't forget to adjust the tone of her voice to the perfect mix of fear and worry. To Keeno, it could only be seen as a girl concerned for her brother's safety.

"There is nobody else. Jaldabaoth leveled the entire castle, only that one was close enough to get protected. Sorry." (Keeno)

The answer was intended to be private, but they were nonetheless overheard by the guards on the same side of the gate as them. Unfortunately, they did not have time to console the princess, so Keeno continued to call out her orders.

"Get the gate open. We need to give them a path to concentrate them here instead of climbing over the walls to get into the castle town itself. After that, get out of here, you'll just get in the way." (Keeno)

Her words towards the officials were far from respectful, but in such an emergency, the judgment of an adamantite-ranked adventurer outweighed their standing orders. They rushed to lift the portcullis before themselves fleeing the area.

Raeven's ex-adventurer guard went over to confirm his safety. The two active adventurers went over to Lakyus to confirm their plans with the leader of Blue Rose. Only Brain did not move from his place a few meters ahead of Keeno, his hand on Razor Edge's hilt, ready to attack.

"Hey. I'll confirm this just in case, but with how you are, you wouldn't have any relation to Shalltear Bloodfallen, would you?" (Brain)

The sun had already set too far for anybody else to clearly identify her features, but it was a simple task for Brain. It was not the first time they had interacted, and yet he did not let his guard down against somebody who might still become his enemy.

"If I'd known anything, I would have told you the first time you asked. At very least, I can say that I had never heard her name before you mentioned it." (Keeno)

"I see. That's unfortunate, when I thought I'd finally found a lead." (Brain)

Brain sighed and gave up his stance. As he started towards her, another blast shook the castle, throwing a cloud of dust and a rain of debris into the sky. The figure which was thrown out with it was too distant to identify, but it returned returned fire with its own magic.

Yet more explosions shook the castle, from the flames of which a demon on blazing wings flew out to meet it, again illuminating the sky with an immense fireball.

"That's Jaldabaoth? How are we supposed to even fight that?" (Brain)

"We don't have to. The Sorcerous Kingdom's envoy came to the city with us, and she engaged Jaldabaoth in single combat." (Keeno)

"Envoy? That Albedo woman is back?" (Brain)

"Not her, a small demon by the name of Tanya. She's easily stronger than me, probably stronger than Jaldabaoth's maids as well. He still has his injuries from the Sorcerer King, so she said she might be able to beat him. There's nothing we can do, so we have to count on her to win." (Keeno)

Brain kept watching the crimson flames and pale rays of magic exchanged between the two demons. Like the adventurers around him and many others throughout the capital, he was mesmerized by the mythical dance in the sky.

"I knew the Sorcerer King had powerful subordinates, but to think that even they would be so far outside reason…" (Brain)

"Save your amazement for later. We still have our own job to do. Jaldabaoth used some kind of magic to summon a swarm of demons. There are already at least fifty mid-ranked demons coming this way, likely with more being summoned afterward." (Keeno)

"What do you mean by that, Keeno?" (Lakyus)

"When we found him, he had over a hundred lesser demons around him. When they were burned together with the castle, the current group of mid-ranked demons came out. In the worst case, we should assume that yet another smaller wave of high-ranked demons would come out once these are defeated, or perhaps after some amount of time has passed." (Keeno)

Keeno's centuries of experience and decades studying various magic was not just for show, as she was able to guess at the growing effects of [Armageddon Evil]. However, her worst case estimate was far too lenient.

Starting with 128 demons around level 10, followed by 64 around level 20, the summons would continue to scale with each coming wave. Normally, the very last wave would consist of a single Evil Lord or Primal Archdevil above level 80, but doing so would go against the story which had established Jaldabaoth as a unique demon lord of immense power.

Since the main purpose of the spell was to occupy the adventurers' time rather than actually destroying the capital, bringing out demons higher level than the Pleiades would be counterproductive. Instead, the Evil Lord had opted for repeating earlier waves rather than letting the spell continue to summon stronger demons.

"Do you know the species of those demons, or at least an estimate of their difficulty?" (Adventurer)

"Long ago I read a similar description of demons called Hell Scythes, though I cannot confirm they are the same. I would estimate their individual difficulty to be near 60, primarily physical fighters with poisonous attacks." (Keeno)

"If we fought them individually, we wouldn't have much difficult, but with those numbers, it won't be so easy… We need to draw them into the gateway to avoid being surrounded." (Lakyus)

"I'll restrict their movements with my magic before we start. After that, Brain Unglaus will take the front to cut them down. This is going to be a long fight, so I'd like Lakyus to focus on healing. Any objections?" (Keeno)

"All right." (Brain)

"Understood, we'll go with that. Princess Renner and Marquis Raeven, it's too late to try running away now, so stay behind us. Climb, stay with the two of them in case some get through." (Lakyus)

"We're buying time for the rest of our members to arrive, and for Tanya-sama to defeat Jaldabaoth. In the event that she loses, all hope is lost. I will abandon all of you and teleport to E-Rantel, then beg for the Sorcerer King's aid. Please be prepared for this possibility." (Keeno)

With those words, Keeno walked out past the front of the group before stopping at the very center of the courtyard, halfway between the gate and the main entrance. She continued to stand in place as the door to the castle was cut apart, Hell Scythes swarming out like locusts.

It was not simply the 64 she had seen at first, more continued to flood out until there were nearly 200. Even as the army of demons charged towards the lone girl, she did not move.

"With just a few more of you, nothing will change. You lot are nothing compared to those maid demons or Jaldabaoth himself, no matter how many there may be. [Widen Magic: Sand Field – All]!" (Keeno)

The raging sandstorm marked the start of their battle.

As day turned to night, the royal castle of the Re-Estize capital suddenly burst into flames with a thunderous roar. Although some guards and adventurers approached for a closer look, most of the common citizens were frozen in place. Whether they had been directly involved or not, every single one of them remembered the night that Jaldabaoth's flames had encircled the financial district.

From the ruins of the castle, two figures engaged in combat. The first to fly out would probably have been difficult to recognize at this distance even in broad daylight, but against the night sky, the blue trail of light it left behind made it simple to track. The other figure to fly out was much easier to recognize. Blazing wings, a muscular body wrapped in flames, even children would recognize it to be a demon, and an incredibly powerful one at that.

Very few had ever seen the masked demon in a suit who had actually invaded the capital, so to everybody else this was a far more natural appearance. It was only reasonable then that the name they had been hearing for the past five days now came to mind.

"Jaldabaoth…"

"That's him!? Wasn't he supposed to be dead?"

"Look at that, what else could that be if not the Demon Emperor?"

"What do we do now? There's nowhere to go if he's already at the capital."

"Who's that fighting him, though? There's no way that's the 'Dark Hero' Momon or the Sorcerer King, but who else could fight that?"

Despair spread throughout the capital. It was well known that Jaldabaoth was strong enough to easily kill adamantite-ranked adventurers who were themselves legends. Before, hearing that he had been fighting against the Sorcerer King over in the Holy Kingdom could be dismissed as infighting between monsters, none of their concern.

With such a threat literally looming above them, anybody who could save them would be a hero, even if it had been the same Ainz Ooal Gown who had slaughtered their army. The citizens of the capital could only hope that whatever was standing up to Jaldabaoth could actually defeat him.

_N__ot __a single cloud in the sky. __If the opponents were ordinary aerial mages, I would have preferred some clouds for cover, but the other demon has enough firepower to blow away the clouds together with anything hiding inside them. Perfect visibility is a much safer choice when every shot coming at you __is practically nuclear._

_ There's a consistent two-second delay between when I can detect the Evil Lord's magic and when __it__ actually attacks. The magic itself is much slower than a rifle bullet, but even adding t__hose __delay__s__ together, dodging fifty-meter walls of hellfire __leaves me with a tight window for counterattacks._

_ I__t__'s following my lead for the pacing of the fight. When I slow down to build a complex formula and attack, __it__ takes the hit and responds with large-scale magic of __its__ own. On the other hand, if I fire harmless shots at __it__, __it__ starts using magic weak enough that it can't even burn me._

_Still, even when __it__'s doing all this to help me survive, we're still playing around with real magic. Live-fire exercise are safer still, at least those bullets can be stopped with a magic shell. Resistance or not, I'd definitely get some severe burns from __that__ magic, so I can't let myself get caught by even one of those unprepared._

Tanya thought about the situation while evading incoming fireballs, which would explode behind her. Though her opponent was truly strong, the fact that it wasn't trying to kill her meant that she still had plenty of leeway. The attacks which she could dodge were all aimed at her, but any with an instant effect would barely miss her instead.

Perhaps Cocytus might have been able to notice the difference, but to the humans watching from the ground, the distinction was far too minuscule. The Evil Lord's attacks were expertly planned to make the battle look as tense as possible without actually killing her.

They could continue this kind of fight for a while without any real progress, but sooner or later one of them would run out of magic. The Evil Lord obviously had a larger pool of magic than her, but it was throwing out high-tier spells despite not being specialized in magic. It could throw around fire with just its skills, but those weren't unlimited either. Letting the fight end with her opponent running out of magic would ruin the whole performance.

After ten minutes of these exchanges, Tanya started to intensify her attacks. As she had hoped, the Evil Lord took the hint and changed its attack pattern in response. Giving up on the barrage of magic, it drew back its fist and rushed towards her.

The vast difference between their flight speeds meant that if she wanted to, she could maintain her distance indefinitely, but she instead responded by raising her shell and hovering in place.

Like the very first attack, it tapped her shell, which she manually broke while flying off in the opposite direction. She would fire back while the Evil Lord closed the distance again, thus repeating the process.

A few rounds later, she skipped her counterattack after taking a hit. When the Evil Lord closed the gap again, it grabbed her instead of striking. Raising a roaring shell of fire around them to drown out any other sound, it carefully brought her close enough to its head for them to speak.

"Will this much be sufficient, Tanya-sama?" (Evil Lord)

"It's perfect, thank you. Do you have an attack to target the city itself which I could block?" (Tanya)

"Of course. I will use such an attack after releasing you, then." (Evil Lord)

"Very good. Sorry about this." (Tanya)

"Please do not worry about it. Unlike manifest demons, physical death has little meaning to summoned demons. Demiurge-sama need only call for my aid again whenever you require my services." (Evil Lord)

"Alright, then. Let's get back to work." (Tanya)

"Then, please raise your defenses and receive this next attack. [Widen Magic: Vermilion Nova]." (Evil Lord)

The Evil Lord threw Tanya towards the ground while sending a large mass of intense flames after her. Accepting that she would have to take some degree of burns, she built a defensive shell while covering her face with her armored sleeves. Moments later, she struck the ground while simultaneously getting coated with the inferno.

The damage was bad, but not so severe that she wouldn't be able to move afterwards, so she activated a pain-numbing formula and proceeded to ignore it. She had landed in the center of a plaza full of witnesses, and having fought Jaldabaoth without injury would have looked unnatural, so accepting this much of an injury was necessary.

Digging her rifle into the scorched crater she was now standing in, Tanya braced herself against it and staggered back to her feet, locking eyes with the Evil Lord flying above.

"Your speed and agility are indeed exceptional, little demon, but you have taken up enough of my time. Realize that fighting while protecting this city will be your defeat. I previously used this to destroy the Holy Kingdom's prided border wall, but as there was no opportunity against your Sorcerer King, this will be the first time and only time I will use it against an individual like this. [Meteor Fall]." (Evil Lord)

As its words implied, a mass of light appeared in the sky above, clearly visible to everybody watching. With an unimaginable speed, the gigantic meteor fell towards the center of the capital, its trajectory perfectly aligned to pass by the Evil Lord and end at Tanya's location.

"Certainly, I won't be able to dodge that. But, if that is all you have…" (Tanya)

Calling out in a voice far too loud to simply be talking to herself, she slowly raised her rifle towards the meteor. An array of parallel rings of varying sizes spread out above her, each spinning at its own speed around the rifle's barrel.

They were not unlike ordinary magic circles they knew, but the sheer scale of the assembly was unlike anything they had seen. The only exceptions to this were the few living witnesses of Ainz Ooal Gown's Super-tier magic, who would give it second place.

"In the past I would have been forced to call for the aid of another, but my lord has freed me from that curse. Under my own power, I will manifest my own miracles as I wish." (Tanya)

Drawing the gathered rings together into one spot, they rotated around to cover a sphere, which collapsed in on itself until it was only a few centimeters in diameter, hovering at the tip of the gun's barrel. It was a pebble compared to the mountain of a boulder tumbling towards the earth, but its blue glow was no less intense than that of the flaming rock.

Lightly pulling the trigger, Tanya fired the ball towards the meteor. Flying off with the speed of a modern rifle, it soundlessly struck the meteor just as it was passing the waiting Evil Lord.

For a single instant, the entire world was silent.

Overlapping the falling meteor, a white sun momentarily appeared in the night sky, lighting up the city as if it were midday. Several seconds later, the pressure from the blast struck the ground, shaking the foundation of the city itself.

The citizens of the capital, Blue Rose in the middle of their battle, the soldiers on patrol outside the city, everybody within dozens of kilometers looked towards the center of the city where a second sun had appeared.

The light gradually faded, returning the city to darkness. In its wake, not a single trace remained of the meteor which had been threatening them.

One the rumbling subsided, all attention gathered towards the center of the crater, where the demon who was the cause of the phenomenon stood calmly, rifle still aimed upwards.

With a blue flash, the hulking figure of the Evil Lord appeared in the air next to her, swinging its massive fists down like a hammer. The shell they struck barely held against the unstoppable force, shattering the outer layer and cracking the inner one, but they ran out of momentum before reaching their target.

Not missing the chance, Tanya covered the blade on her tail with magic and swung it across the Evil Lord's stuck fists. The natural weapon struck its skin with a metallic thud and was partially deflected, but still left a deep gash on each finger. The Evil Lord staggered from the attack, magmatic blood scattering into the air. Jumping back to the edge of the crater, Tanya stopped and examined the Evil Lord.

Since her attack was an explosion of pure mana rather than a fireball, its fire immunity could not protect it at all. Parts of its body had been all but erased in the process, stripping not only skin but even the blood and muscle beneath it, revealing the thick black bones underneath. The flames which previously ran across its entire body had nearly vanished, leaving only a few tracks spreading from its heart.

It had survived the attack, but its current appearance could only be described as "at death's door." This state was not a simple act, but a real result of having barely escaped annihilation.

As Tanya saw it, magic of this degree was hardly worth reporting. It was certainly impressive compared to before she had started using her current set of equipment, but even now it could not be compared to what Ainz was capable of. Though she had only seen his Super-tier magic once, a cursory examination was enough to conclude that it was leagues above anything she could use.

No matter what techniques she might try, his magic would kill her. She did not have a single doubt about this fact. Conversely, her own magic which was only at the level of killing a Dracolich would be of no interest to Ainz or Demiurge. As such, she had never bothered to report the details of that fight.

Without that information, the Evil Lord had only been told of her mock battle against the Pleiades, but knew nothing about her capacity for instantaneously dealing damage. Taking the hit which shot down the meteor was intentional, that was why it had stood directly between her and the meteor.

Instead of receiving the expected attack, the Evil Lord felt an instinctive warning and used [Time Stop] only a few milliseconds after the explosion. This reaction let it survive, but that moment of contact had been enough to drain over 90% of its remaining HP.

The sudden damage had triggered one of its innate skills, [Wrath Counter]. Without holding anything back, it teleported in to launch an attack with its full power, capable of dealing the same amount of damage that the Evil Lord of Wrath had received.

Since this skill allowed it to ignore the party's tanks and immediately strike at the defenseless attackers with a powerful physical attack, it was a considerably dangerous ability. Normally, one would spread high-power attacks over a longer time to avoid dealing too much damage at once to prevent the ability from triggering, or preemptively use skills which would forcibly redirect the attack to one of the tanks.

Tanya could notice the sings of teleportation magic and its destination ahead of time, but the full-force attack was an unexpected followup. Such an attack gave her a moment of panic, but she still managed to take advantage of her multilayered shell to spread the attack over a few points and barely stop it from critically injuring her.

After the effects of the skill ended, the Evil Lord regained control and retreated, thankfully having failed to accidentally kill its opponent. Death might not be a problem for it, but disobeying Demiurge's orders was unacceptable.

Taking care not to show its relief on what remained of its face, the Evil Lord began to speak.

"I thought my ambush was perfectly timed, but to think you would be prepared even for that… I must offer my heartfelt praise." (Evil Lord)

"To you as well, I'm amazed you survived even that. I had to burn out my precious rifle for that last attack." (Tanya)

"I was only barely able to teleport out. For a moment, I forgot that I wasn't fighting the Sorcerer King himself. With that kind of power, are you truly content with being a subject of the Sorcerous Kingdom? You could have stood by my side as an empress." (Evil Lord)

"Don't be ridiculous. A title like that is meaningless before a supreme being such as Ainz-sama. I am a soldier, not a ruler, and Ainz-sama is generous to those who serve him." (Tanya)

"I see. Please allow me to apologize for the words I spoke to you when we first met, your ability transcends your age as a demon. It is truly unfortunate that I would have to kill one such as yourself." (Evil Lord)

Tanya pushed the overheated rifle back into her bag, in its place taking out a pitch-black, cursed-looking combat knife. She drew the knife from its scabbard, covering it with a magic blade while tossing the scabbard back into the bag. The cursed blade took on a crimson glow, befitting a demonic weapon.

"Are your preparations finished?" (Evil Lord)

"Yeah. Melee combat isn't my specialty, but I have my share of experience in it. With our injuries, it'll be down to who gets the first hit in." (Tanya)

"Then, as I was the one who began our battle, I will allow you the first strike this time. Come any time." (Evil Lord)

Both of them stood ready, the Evil Lord relocating the remaining fire on its body towards its fists, while Tanya crouched down, knife at the ready.

In an instant, she accelerated forward, flying along the ground at an incredible speed towards the Evil Lord. The momentum would easily let the knife pierce its heart, but it was far too obvious an approach.

Thrusting its mace-like fist forward, it struck her. Except, the figure just phased through its fist and kept moving.

Wide-eyed, it froze from the unexpected lack of response, and that moment proved fatal.

The cursed knife was driven into its back, piercing through its molten heart.

"Since the start of our conversation, the one you were talking about was a decoy. The dust cloud from your attack made for the perfect cover to send it out." (Tanya)

"… Splendid…" (Evil Lord)

What was left of the Evil Lord's face fell into a satisfied smile as the last fire in its chest disappeared. Starting from its chest, its massive body gradually turned to black particles and blew away with the wind.

Tanya stood alone in the crater-shaped arena.


	5. Intermission

Intermission

Jircniv was sitting down on a couch, enjoying a glass of wine from the northern end of the empire. Ever since the Empire became a vassal nation under the Sorcerous Kingdom, his own workload had greatly decreased. The last few months had given the Empire's people confidence that the Sorcerer King wasn't interested in slaughtering them for no reason, and even the remaining nobility were running out of resistance.

After the first few who had tried to oppose Albedo's suggestions were promptly removed from their posts, the rest gave in. It was a waste of talent, but rooting them out now was necessary to avoid giving the Sorcerer King a reason to complain. Besides, most of those removed where just minor nobles Jircniv hadn't had time to get rid of before, when his attention was drawn to bigger fish. None were irreplaceable, not in the way Fluder Paradyne had been.

But he was gone now. He had long since stopped trying to hide his betrayal, holing himself up in his study and ignoring all but the most important meetings. As soon as Albedo's plan to finish augmenting the Empire's army with the Sorcerous Kingdom's undead, he left without a moment's hesitation.

It was inevitable considering the old magician's personality, but Jircniv couldn't just get over his betrayal so quickly. His Empire might be safe from invasion even without him, but that fact didn't make his departure any less of a loss.

Hating Ainz Ooal Gown for stealing him away wouldn't do any good, so he could only tell himself to move on. The old man was probably crying tears of joy while reading some ancient tome deep in that nightmarish tomb, though that was assuming he was still human. For all Jircniv knew, he might well have been turned into some kind of Lich already.

One was far more willing than the other, but they were subjects of the same ruler. Maybe they would meet again one day, assuming he survived long enough.

Any plans to incite rebellion had long since been abandoned. All Jircniv could do was continue to be as moderately competent as he could, at the exact middle between useless enough to replace and competent enough to purge.

"So, what is it now, Varmilinen? From the look on your face, another report about the Sorcerer King?" (Jircniv)

"Y-yes… but, more precisely, it's…" (Roune)

"Let me guess, did he kill the Platinum Dragon Lord? Found the hidden treasures of the Eight Greed Kings? Taken over the Re-Estize Kingdom over the weekend?" (Jircniv)

Jircniv laughed while sarcastically listing off legends, but Roune's face turned even more pale than usual from the last one.

"Wait, seriously? The Kingdom?" (Jircniv)

"Yes, although we called most of our foreign agents home, they sent word themselves… In an attempt to seize the throne, a group of their nobles summoned the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth, who was thought to have been defeated by His Majesty, the Sorcerer King, but narrowly escaped using an item prepared beforehand.

They activated the item, which allowed Jaldabaoth to return to this world, and tried to control him, but of course, their attempt to bind him failed, and he began to rampage around the capital. The nobles and royalty gathered in the castle were wiped out, however, the damage to the city was relatively minor, as they were saved by the Sorcerous Kingdom's envoy, who has been declared a hero by Princess Renner, the last surviving member of the royal Vaiself family…" (Roune)

Roune trailed off while Jircniv sank back into the couch. He thought he would be prepared to hear anything by this point, but actually hearing the report was still depressing. He didn't need to hear the rest of the report to figure it out.

She was an enigma he couldn't understand, but all this was far too convenient for her to be simple coincidence. He had no idea how much of it had been her planned and how much was opportunism, but none of that changed the fact that she had seized power both legally and through popular support.

If she was calling the Sorcerous Kingdom's envoy – one of the monsters who had been in the throne room when he visited Nazarick – a hero of the people, Jircniv had no doubt that Renner's next action would be becoming their subject. If she pointed at the Empire as an example, she probably wouldn't even have to deal with much resistance.

And unlike the Empire's professional knights who opposed disbanding the army, the Kingdom's conscripted army would be thankful for being spared the forced military service.

"So she used this hero as a symbol to gain support for surrendering and entrusting their Kingdom's safety to the Sorcerous Kingdom they represented?" (Jircniv)

"T-that is correct, Your Majesty." (Roune)

Jircniv sighed.

"So the reason they went for such a primitive plan was because the targets were even stupider? The only ones who had to believe it were the moronic backup nobles in the kingdom, who went and got themselves killed. Meanwhile, letting anybody with half a brain know something is up made them wary of external threats, which turned their attention away from the actions of their own." (Jircniv)

Just as Jircniv had feared, the plan behind the Sorcerer King's supposed death had been flawless, far deeper and more complex than anything he could have imagined. He called it a lame scheme when he first heard of it, but now that he had a better look, it was a perfect conspiracy.

Much like he had hoped to crush the Kingdom by bleeding them of their working population and letting them fight amongst themselves, he had simply left behind the tool and sat back while they destroyed themselves.

Whether Renner was in on it from the beginning, or somebody who believed the shortest route to salvation was being useful to the Sorcerer King, that was inconsequential. She was in power now, and she would continue to rule with his support, until the Re-Estize Kingdom was just another puppet state like the Empire was steadily growing into.

"What do we do now, Your Majesty?" (Roune)

"Now? Nothing, of course. Everything is as the Sorcerer King planned. There is nothing for us to say about it. If you want to do something, pour yourself a drink to our new allies in the Kingdom." (Jircniv)

Jircniv poured another glass of his wine and set it down on the table. Roune continued to watch him nervously, uncertain of whether the comment was a serious invitation or a joke.

"Allies, you say?" (Roune)

"We're fellow vassals under the same overlord. See if we can get some trade routes opened through E-Rantel to the Kingdom. If conquering them is no longer an option, we may as well start to rebuild relations through trade. I'm sure that woman was planning on taking advantage of vassalization as well, so they should be prepared on their end as well." (Jircniv)

"Would the people of the Kingdom accept trade with us so easily after so many years of warring?" (Roune)

"If she can get them to accept the Sorcerer King's rule, she'll have something prepared for us as well. Let them take care of that themselves." (Jircniv)

"Is Princess Renner really such a trustworthy individual?" (Roune)

Jircniv sneered at Roune's question.

"Trust? Trust has nothing to do with it. We're both acting in our own interest, so it's not hard to figure out what she'll do, especially since neither of us has a reason to hide it from each other anymore." (Jircniv)

He didn't like her, but he could make use of her. As long as she viewed him the same way, they could work together. That being the case, reforming the Empire's laws and strengthening its economy would be even easier if they could work with the Re-Estize Kingdom, now that the idiots among their nobility had been wiped out. If the Sorcerer King wished to rule over a prosperous world like Albedo had suggested, that was a goal he could get behind as well.

Thinking about the future of their two countries reminded Jircniv of another point he was curious about.

"Ah, right. Who was that hero the Sorcerer King sent? I can't imagine it was the insect warrior or the toad monster, was it that old man, or perhaps one of the dark elf children who came here before?" (Jircniv)

"N-no, according to the report, it was apparently a gold-haired demon with the appearance of a young girl." (Roune)

Jircniv thought back to everybody he saw in Nazarick, but couldn't think of anybody who matched the description.

"Gold-haired demon…? Was there somebody like that among his aides in the throne room?" (Jircniv)

"No, I inquired further about her physical description from the Kingdom's messenger, but they did not match anybody who was in the Sorcerer King's throne room at that time." (Roune)

Jircniv laughed. He could only laugh.

"So she has enough power to defeat the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth in single combat, but in the Sorcerous Kingdom she's not even important enough to stand in the throne room by his side? This isn't even funny anymore…" (Jircniv)


	6. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Part 1

Demiurge sat in a chair, sorting through the day's stack of reports. The office he was in, if it could be called that, was a single room within the Blazing Shrine on the 7th floor he was tasked with overseeing.

Perhaps it was too plain for somebody of his status, but he insisted that it was unnecessary for beings created only to serve the Almighty Supreme Beings to have desires of their own. As this office was only needed to fulfill the job bestowed upon him, it had no use for decorations.

Each time he picked up a report, he would glance at it for a moment before placing it neatly onto a different stack of paper. This was by no means a sign of laziness, but simply all the time he needed to comprehend the contents of the report and classify its importance.

The largest pile by far was for reports which he only had to remember existed and file away. Next, another stack about a quarter the size of the first was for any information which should be passed to Albedo for further examination, whether because it was related to one of her projects or needed to be passed to another of the Guardians. Last, there was a stack with only a few pieces of paper, consisting of reports which required Ainz's direct attention.

At one point, Ainz had personally received every single report provided by Nazarick's subordinates. If left to their own devices, some of the more human-hating among them might wipe out a city without caring, so he had made sure they would report to him before doing so. The volume of reports proved too large for him to effectively pay attention to though, so he decided to trust Demiurge and Albedo to process those reports in his stead.

These reports were collected from around the world, delivered either in person by subordinates or received through the use of [Message] and transcribed by his lesser subordinates.

Weekly report on the output of his stockyards, up 4% from last week. File away.

Daily report from the Hanzos monitoring the Slane Theocracy: Stalemate against elven No military movements. File away.

Spread of the Sorcerer King's worshipers in the Holy Kingdom: Up 8,200 over the last week. Growth continues as projected. File away.

Request by dwarf smiths in E-Rantel for additional supply of orichalcum. Forward to Albedo to organize delivery.

Training reports from Cocytus: 13 Lizardmen were able to learn martial arts, bringing the total to 127. File away.

The Re-Estize Kingdom has requested to become a protectorate of the Sorcerous Kingdom. Requesting authority to accept on behalf of Ainz-sama.

Demiurge's gaze stopped. For the first time that day, he re-read the report to confirm that he had not misunderstood its contents. Confirming that there was indeed no mistake, he scattered the remaining documents across his desk, picking out the other documents on the same topic. Upon comparing their contents, he stood up and teleported to the 9th floor using the power of the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown.

As he had hoped, Albedo was already waiting in the throne room, though Ainz himself was elsewhere. Noticing Demiurge's appearance, she greeted him with a smile and a light nod.

"Albedo. These is a matter with our conquest of the Re-Estize Kingdom I wish to consult with you about. Do you have time?" (Demiurge)

"Of course, Demiurge. Has something gone wrong? I do not recall anything of note having been scheduled around this time." (Albedo)

"No, nothing is wrong, however… it appears the Kingdom is already prepared to surrender." (Demiurge)

"Hm? Isn't that far too early? Her estimates suggested two years, yet it hasn't been nine months since the agreement. Is there no mistake?" (Albedo)

"I considered the possibility as well, however the report confirms the details. Check it yourself, if you wish." (Demiurge)

As the only surviving member of the royal family, Princess Renner ascended to the throne unopposed. Using Jaldabaoth's summoning by a conspiring faction of nobles as a pretext, nearly all nobility in the country have been imprisoned or executed, with the exception of her immediate supporters. All of this was publicly performed by Raeven, now a Duke and her second-in-command as Prime Minster. He was the diligent workhorse, while she was the beloved leader of the people.

Since it was publicly announced that those nobles were responsible for the disaster which threatened to destroy the capital, all the citizen's ire turned to the nobility, so even such drastic measures would not be seen as tyrannic. The few who could have refuted it were quickly made to disappear, leaving only allies and neutrals who were smart enough to not notice what was happening.

In a single week, she had wiped out all the nobles who had gathered at the castle, then had the remainders declared to be traitors and arrested, all while maintaining an astounding level of public support. The purge meant that the internal functions of the kingdom would grind to a halt, but her task would be accomplished by the time that became known to the public, at which point she could turn it into a national dependence on the Sorcerous Kingdom.

In the capital, Tanya had become a hero whose name was no less famous than Momon's. His magnificent victory against Jaldabaoth was well-known, but it was an abstract thing, seen only by a select few adventurers. Meanwhile, her struggle had played out in front of every single man, woman, and child living in the capital. Rather than a heroic tale spoken of in bars, every single one of the capital's citizens had personally witnessed her fight to the death against a superior foe to save them and their city.

Faced with Jaldabaoth's invasion, the Holy Kingdom despaired. As the one who saved them from certain death, they came to believe that their savior, Ainz Ooal Gown, must be a god.

The capital had spent the better part of a week celebrating Jaldabaoth's death. As if to mock them, the Demon Emperor appeared in their sky, promising them destruction. She was their only recourse, and so they prayed to her, with no regard for the fact that she was a demon sent by their enemy.

In a single night, Ainz Ooal Gown became their source of hope, while the nobility became the ones at fault for the tragic war. Ignoring the warnings of the late Warrior Captain for their own greed, they were the ones at fault for antagonizing Ainz Ooal Gown, who now ruled E-Rantel in peace.

At the peak of her support, she announced her intention to reopen the eastern border, to resume trade with E-Rantel, and to make the Re-Estize Kingdom a protectorate of the Sorcerous Kingdom.

The proposal was shocking, of course, but they had just been shown just how powerless they really were. Nobody could deny that they needed protection against the truly powerful, and that protection could only be offered by the Sorcerer King.

She promised them safety from invasion, freedom from conscription, and peace for generations to come. Only a year ago this would have been seen as idealistic nonsense, but the demon who stood behind her made it possible. They only had to give the Sorcerer King a chance.

There would be opposition from those in the surrounding cities who had never seen Jaldabaoth's power, but merchants and well-off citizens who came to visit the capital would soon return to spread the story.

Outside the cities, it was unlikely to make much of a difference whether or not they heard the story. For a village of farmers, the year's harvest was a much more pressing concern than the appearance of their ruler. On top of that, they would no longer have to worry about their fathers and brothers being called away for military service in the middle of the harvest. There was little for them to lose by accepting it, and nothing to gain by opposing it.

After that, they would never be able to go back. They would grow reliant on trade with their suzerain in E-Rantel and fellow subject in the Empire. Their military would be mostly disbanded, after which raising it again would be next to impossible. In return for prosperity, the Re-Estize Kingdom would forever tie their fate to that of the Sorcerous Kingdom.

Renner had been told to prepare the Kingdom for their invasion, yet even that was no longer necessary. Such petty details did not matter when the result was more beneficial to Nazarick. Without a doubt, she had not only finished far ahead of schedule, but exceeded all expectations.

"Although it is ahead of schedule, we are already prepared for the next steps. This is unexpected, but what is the issue?" (Albedo)

"Take a look at the reports from the Hanzos in the capital." (Demiurge)

"This is… I see. Ainz-sama has requested to be left alone in his office except in case of an emergency but… Yes, this is certainly something which must be brought to Ainz-sama's immediate attention. Let us go." (Albedo)

Ainz slowly read through the series of reports which Demiurge had presented to him. Neither he nor Albedo spoke while Ainz slowly flipped through the pages, the flames in his eyes occasionally flaring up as if widening his fleshless eyes.

If the two of them had gone so far as to interrupt him after he had been asked to be left alone, this must be of grave urgency, he reasoned. He did not rush his reading, but scrutinized the contents with great care. For five minutes, the room was silent except for the occasionally shuffling of pages. Finished, Ainz set down the documents and looked up to meet Demiurge's gaze.

"She used Super-tier magic to defeat the Evil Lord you had sent through the gate? That should not be possible." (Ainz)

"This is what I believed as well, but two independent groups of Hanzos in the area gave nearly identical reports. A single attack of a scale which transcended any 10th tier magic, which could only be compared to the likes of [Fallen Down]. The Evil Lord which received it escaped using [Time Stop] after only being grazed by its effects, yet was nearly destroyed before it was able to teleport away." (Demiurge)

"Hoh?" (Ainz)

Ainz brought his bony fingers to his mandible, as stroking his skinless chin. Sinking deep into thought, he tried to think of any explanation.

"We know level 70 to be an absolute minimum for anybody to learn Super-tier magic. Though we cannot measure her level perfectly, a miscalculation that large is improbable. So, we must conclude that she cannot use Super-tier magic as YGGDRASIL would define it. Despite that, she undeniably used magic above the 10th tier. I believe the most likely conclusion is that this was not the activation of a discreet Super-tier spell, but an extension of ordinary magic to a similar scale." (Demiurge)

"To resolve the contradiction… Yes, I expect your theory is correct. However, why is it that you consider this to be so urgent?" (Ainz)

"Ainz-sama, despite possessing attack power of this level, she not only neglected to include it in her report, but previously hid the ability during the demonstration match against the Pleiades. We believe there is a possibility that she did so intending to betray Nazarick in the future." (Albedo)

"Hm… Is this not the same as Solution's suspicion of Sebas, or Lupusregina failing to report information she thought inconsequential?" (Ainz)

"Ideally, that would indeed be the case. However, we cannot yet be certain whether she truly possesses absolute loyalty towards yourself. Would you permit us to recall her for the purpose of verifying her reason for omitting this information?" (Demiurge)

"… Very well, I will allow it. I will open a portal to her current location. Albedo, go deliver my summons to her." (Ainz)

"As you wish, Ainz-sama." (Albedo)

"Have you already confirmed her current position?" (Ainz)

"Of course. After the royal castle was destroyed, Renner had the top floor of the largest inn in the city reserved for her at no expense. It is the same inn which Momon had used during his last mission in the capital, and she is currently alone in her room." (Demiurge)

"Then, there is no reason to delay. [Gate]." (Ainz)

With a wave of his arm, Ainz opened a gate to the capital. Albedo bowed to him, then disappeared into the portal. Less than a minute later, she passed back through, followed by Tanya, who kneeled upon entering. Ainz allowed the gate to close behind them before beginning to speak.

"Tanya. First, allow me to congratulate you on accomplishing your task. Though this plan was primarily the work of Renner, your contributions were irreplaceable. Demiurge and I both expect great things from you in the future." (Ainz)

"Thank you very much, Ainz-sama." (Tanya)

"However, there is something I wish to hear from you. Explain to us the details of your battle against the Evil Lord who was representing Jaldabaoth." (Ainz)

Tanya's expression shifted slightly at the question. She did not understand the reason for asking about something which had already been resolved. After a brief pause, she began to explain.

"The Evil Lord began by destroying the castle and killing all its occupants. Renner herself was withdrawn beforehand, and at her request, I protected Raeven from its attack as well. Afterwards, we began a prolonged battle in the sky above the capital, with an emphasis on how it would appear from the ground. In order to end the fight before it could run out of mana, I requested that it attack the city, then destroyed the meteor it called with a mana explosion, again selecting a formula based on appearance. Finally, we slowly finished on the ground to draw in more witnesses, to make sure Jaldabaoth's death could not be doubted… Is there anything else you wish to know?" (Tanya)

Thinking he simply wanted to know the details of the fight he had not seen for reference, she gave a brief summary of the fight and her planning, though she was uncertain as to whether this was what he was asking for.

"Is that so? Do you have anything else you wish to report?" (Ainz)

"… I apologize, but I am uncertain of what you are asking for." (Tanya)

"The magic spell you used against the Evil Lord, described by witnesses as a second sun in the night sky… Why did you omit this ability from your description? Were you attempting to hide this ability?" (Ainz)

Tanya continued to look up at him with a confused look.

"Yes, I used a formula like that, but I still do not understand what relevance this has to the report I gave." (Tanya)

"You are asking the relevance of reporting your ability to use magic equivalent to Super-tier spells?" (Ainz)

"Huh? Can't everybody here do that?" (Tanya)

"Huh?" (Ainz)

"…" (Tanya)

"…" (Ainz)

"Ah, so that's how it was." (Demiurge)

"Demiurge-sama?" (Tanya)

"Tanya, aside from teleportation, the only magic you have seen any of us use was Ainz-sama's Super-tier magic, [Change The World], back in the school. Is this not correct?" (Demiurge)

"Could it be that you did not report it because you believed magic of that level to be the standard for everybody within Nazarick?" (Albedo)

"Is it not, though? The spell used to destroy the Re-Estize Kingdom's army was similar as well." (Tanya)

"Indeed, that was the Super-tier spell, [Ia Shub-Niggurath]. However, the only individuals within Nazarick capable of using attack magic of that scale are myself and Mare." (Ainz)

"Ah… I see… My lack of information led me to submit an incomplete report. Please forgive my mistake." (Tanya)

"No, in this case the fault is mine. I should have made the distinction clear, especially given the difference of standards between worlds." (Demiurge)

Having found the root cause of the misunderstanding, both of them bowed to Ainz in apology.

"Enough. Your petty mistakes are forgiven. Let us move on to the matter of the Kingdom. Demiurge, I assume you and Albedo have already drafted new plans given the change in the situation?" (Ainz)

"I do not see any issue with continuing to have Tanya act as our representative within the Kingdom. Her reputation will translate into support for Ainz-sama, and as we have no immediate need for their resources, gradually integrating them would be best. Furthermore, we could have the Kingdom encourage merchants to resume trade with E-Rantel, spreading news about Jaldabaoth's defeat to speed up E-Rantel's pacification. We should accept their vassalization immediately, while they are still grateful to us for saving them." (Demiurge)

"I will continue to leave this matter to you, Demiurge. Then, you are all dismissed… no, wait, there is still something else. I held off on informing you through [Message] to avoid the information being leaked, but the matter you warned about appears to have begun." (Ainz)

"Was there such a matter? I was not informed of any such warning." (Albedo)

"I'm sorry for the deception, Albedo, but this was kept between the two of us until I could confirm its accuracy. Immediately after this, gather all the Floor Guardians so I can explain it to them as well.

Over the past several weeks, we have been using various divination-type magic to check for anybody attempting to watch Tanya, and [Detect Locate] confirmed that there were observers from outside Nazarick.

Despite this, [Clairvoyance], [Remove Viewing], and several other attempts all failed to record the observer. None of the spells were countered, yet neither the observer themselves nor their location could be determined. Do you understand the meaning of this?" (Ainz)

"I am afraid my knowledge does not extend to divination. Would you please enlighten us, Ainz-sama?" (Albedo)

"Do not worry about it. Counter-detection magic, as the name suggests, can be used to stop location magic from activating, or to gain information about the opponent. In this case, I was using the latter. The enemy was able to gain information, while my magic was unable to provide any. At very least, this suggests that the enemy is either more skilled in divination magic than I am. The Slane Theocracy's famed 'Thousand Mile Astrologer' cannot begin to compare.

The greatest clue we have to work with is that my spells activated, no counter-detection magic was used against them, but they were still unable to provide information. This enemy is either careless or supremely confident in their ability, or perhaps both. Had they stopped my counter-detection, I would have had to give up.

Using [Perfect Unknowable] can hide almost all traces of one's appearance, but in this case even their location was undetectable. In other words, they were not within range of my magic – they were watching from outside this world." (Ainz)

Ainz's declaration shocked both Demiurge and Albedo, but to both Ainz and Tanya, this only confirmed their original expectations.

"It seems he's a very persistent stalker, that self-proclaimed god of yours." (Ainz)

The next day at noon, the Re-Estize Kingdom's surrender became official. With no king on the throne, the 'kingdom' was also officially dropped from its name to become just Re-Estize, though it would be a while still before the change came into popular use.

Instead of being surrounded by nobles in the throne room of the royal palace where such an event would normally take place, Renner held it in the middle of the town square. Appearing in front of the citizens with just Duke Raeven and Climb by her side, she knelt and presented the treasure sword Razor Edge to Tanya, acting as the Sorcerer King's representative.

To be awarded a sword by the king was normally an honor reserved for knights or nobles of the kingdom, as it carried the meaning of a gift meant to protect the country one belonged to. When the monarch was the one kneeling while presenting their weapon, it would instead signify surrender. By presenting the treasure sword wielded by generations of the Kingdom's warriors, she declared the end of Re-Estize's independence.

The announcement would go out to surrounding countries, but the people watching wouldn't see much of a difference for a while. There would be some uncertainty about whether the Sorcerer King could be trusted to keep his promises, but it wasn't any worse than worrying about another war against the Empire. Their lives would continue as before, so for the time being, they could only wait.

Without a declaration of war, with no grand second invasion, witnessed only by a few hundred assorted citizens of the capital, the Re-Estize Kingdom ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.

"Princess Renner, is this really acceptable?" (Raeven)

"It can't be helped, though. We both saw what Jaldabaoth could do, nothing we have could ever stand against it, not without them here to save us. Even before that, you personally saw Ainz Ooal Gown-sama's power. Isn't this the best way for Re-Estize to survive? If it came down to it, you would have even accepted enslavement. Compared to that we've come out on top." (Renner)

The two architects behind Re-Estize, Raeven and Renner were calmly drinking tea together. Though he was swamped in work, Raeven was still waiting for his assistants to reach the capital from his territory before he could start working in earnest. Renner had suggested for them to take this kind of break while they still could.

"… It's hard to argue against that. When I was being chased by those black monsters summoned by the Sorcerer King, I stopped worrying about anything else. If I could just escape somewhere with my son and wife, I wouldn't have minded the kingdom being destroyed in the process. This outcome is still better than anything we could have hoped for." (Raeven)

Raeven took a sip from his cup to suppress the inadvertent shudder from remembering that day.

"This capital was only saved because of Tanya-sama and Keeno-san. If Ainz Ooal Gown-sama hadn't sent her here, there wouldn't have been anybody who could match Jaldabaoth even in his injured state. If Keeno-san escaped for her own safety or held back to protect her secret, the entire capital might have been overrun regardless of what happened to Jaldabaoth himself.

It's because the people know this that they're willing to accept a demon and vampire being here. Without that, there would have been little choice but for the kingdom to be invaded and suppressed by force. With just the city of E-Rantel, Momon-sama could keep them from revolting, but such a thing would be impossible with the whole kingdom. People would revolt, and they would be crushed. Surrendering with only a few hundred deaths in the capital is an excellent outcome." (Renner)

Renner maintained a neutral smile despite the grim topic of her commentary. Since Raeven already knew of her real nature, there was no reason for her to keep up the act. Not even Climb was present with them.

"You say that even when your brother, father, and sister were among the casualties… But it's true that we might be able to keep the peace if it's just us. It's not even something we can thank the gods for, this tragedy shouldn't have happened to begin with. How did Marquis Bowlrob's son even get ahold of that demon's artifact? It was supposed to be sealed deep in the royal family's vault, the weakened Eight Fingers shouldn't have any way to touch it… without support from…" (Raeven)

Raeven froze, realizing the meaning behind the words he had just leaked. Looking at Renner, he saw that her expression had not shifted in the slightest since the beginning. Reluctantly, he asked the question which came to mind.

"… Princess Renner, how is it that Marquis Bowlrob's son learned about that artifact? It was supposed to be a secret known only to Momon-dono and the royal family, was it not?" (Raeven)

"Did you know? The late Marquis Bowlrob's third daughter worked as one of the maids in this castle. One of my personal maids, every Tuesday. She said some really rude things about my Climb, you know. It's a shame she burned up with the rest of them, I would have liked to spend some time alone with her." (Renner)

For the first time, her smile turned into a genuine one, cruel and vicious. They sat in silence for some time after that. The door to the room opened without warning. Without missing a beat, Renner stood up and bowed in the direction of the open door.

"You are right on time as always, Tanya-sama, welcome. Ah, by the way, it seems that Duke Raeven finally figured out what is going on, so should we drop this pretense and move on to planning the future of this country?" (Renner)

Not having expected Raeven to be there, Tanya gave him an annoyed glance while sitting down, then picked up the cup already set out and took a sip.

"As long as the results are the same, it's not my concern who you choose to collaborate with. I will have to report this, though I expect my superiors already accounted for it." (Tanya)

Raeven's presence was brushed away with a light comment.

"Do you intend to follow the same model for introducing undead and nonhuman races as with E-Rantel?" (Tanya)

"The circumstances are slightly different, but fundamentally it won't be too different. Since we had you and Keeno stay in the capital for a while, we can expect people to be more open to the change here, so we can use them to replace the civil servants who died in Jaldabaoth's attack. Using them for something more visible would also help, perhaps for reconstructing the castle itself. Outside the capital though, it may take quite a while longer, since my authority isn't unlimited." (Renner)

"We're in no hurry. Stabilizing the country and getting rid of any resistance is a priority. Should we have you visit E-Rantel and bring back some of our supporters? Hearing from somebody already under Ainz-sama's rule might go a long way towards reassuring them." (Tanya)

"Yes, I had been planning on that as well. Going there personally would be an effective first step towards getting trade started again. Letting the economy grow from here on would help build people's trust in us, and we could attribute the success to the Sorcerous Kingdom's help." (Renner)

"Would the city be fine without you for those weeks, though? It seems to me that people trust you, not your government. Won't there be some groups who jump at the chance to take back control?" (Tanya)

"We can use that to flush them out, while we're at it. If it's who I expect to be behind it, he will be thinking that Duke Raeven is the one behind it, not me. Officially, he's the one who gained the most from this, while I am struggling through losing my family. Once we are apart, they might approach us individually, or perhaps try to assassinate us. It'd be perfect evidence to crush them and set an example." (Renner)

"Should I ask for a Shadow Demon for him as well, then? He seems capable enough, and you went so far as to ask for him to be saved, it'd be a waste to let him get killed now." (Tanya)

"Could I ask you for that, then? There's nothing to gain by letting him die, but he's already lost too many of his guards. Everybody from Blue Rose will probably insist on coming with me as well, so he would be left alone. I still need some time to spread rumors, so how does two months from now sound?" (Renner)

"I will relay that date to Albedo-sama, but I believe it should be acceptable." (Tanya)

The discussion concluded without any input from Raeven. Though the topic drifted into issues directly related to his survival, there was nothing he could say. He had long since lost the chance to escape, from here on he could only trust that Renner knew what she was doing, and to preserve his value in her eyes, so he wouldn't end up like her brother.

"Is there anything else you require, Tanya-sama?" (Renner)

"There was one other thing. Albedo-sama wanted me to ask what you thought about the contents of the box." (Tanya)

"Ah, it was wonderful. Just as I had hoped, it really does make a perfect collar for my Climb. Would you please send my thanks to Albedo-sama, Demiurge-sama, and Ainz Ooal Gown-sama for the gift?" (Renner)

Renner's expression was enough to make even a demon flinch.

"… I will do so. For the time being, I will be returning to E-Rantel. Take care of yourself, Renner." (Tanya)

"Thank you very much, Tanya-sama." (Renner)

With those words, Tanya left the room. Her role was only to relay orders, not to govern. That should be left to those with experience and talent in the field.

"… Princess Renner, will future generations know our names as the greatest traitors in the history of humanity?" (Raeven)

"Perhaps. Does such a thing matter to us, though?" (Renner)

"I don't think I could bear it, if my son were to look at me and say such a thing." (Raeven)

"Then you only have to create a future where this was the correct choice. Let him see what kind of prosperity Ainz Ooal Gown-sama's leadership can bring this country." (Renner)

* * *

Part 2

Tanya quietly returned to E-Rantel, then to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Though it was undeniably far more more impressive than her room in E-Rantel, it was not without its inconveniences, requiring anybody passing through to go through a maze. Without the ability to teleport to her destination, even flying through at top speed would cost no less than fifteen minutes, requiring her to fly carefully through all sorts of dangerous environments.

If it were only to take time off, she would have just stayed in E-Rantel, but there was nowhere in this entire world with stronger countermeasures against espionage than within Nazarick. As secrecy was of the utmost import in their current plan, there was no choice but to go.

Though their opponent's observation ability was exceptional, even he did not appear to be capable of breaking through Nazarick's barriers. This did however mean that he was likely to make a move the next time she went outside after a long time inside, or so Demiurge had theorized from her explanation of her past experience. In other words, all their preparations had to be completed before then.

Upon her return, she gave Razor Edge over to Ainz, who had expressed interest in it, but he had her hold on to it. According to Albedo, although everything in the world already belonged to Ainz-sama, there were still some ingrates in Re-Estize who would complain about it being handed over to another so easily.

Razor Edge was certainly an impressive item which could even surpass the lower-tier equipment in Nazarick's treasury, but according to Ainz, it was a self-contradictory weapon. Despite being usable only by warrior classes, its true power could only be brought out by a magic caster, as it could consume MP to strengthen itself. Somebody like Touch Me might be able to put it to good use, but warriors with high enough magic stats to use it would no doubt have a better weapon of their own.

Using [Perfect Warrior] would let Ainz use warrior equipment restriction, but it would simultaneously replace all his spellcaster classes and set his MP to 0, thereby defeating the point. Either way, it would be far too unnatural for the weapon given to the Sorcerous Kingdom to find its way into Momon's hands, and if he were to use the spell in a serious fight, borrowing a weapon from the rest of the 41 would be a far more practical choice.

Though Ainz had been interested in Razor Edge as a collector's item, in the end it would just wind up rusting in Nazarick's treasure with everything else, so he just let her hold on to it.

Like most magic weapons, it had shrunk to a more appropriate size once she had tried equipping it, but even then it was a greatsword taller than her. Without appropriate training, seriously trying to fight with it wouldn't be realistic, but she had far better uses for her time than trying to learn martial arts. Thus, the heirloom of the Re-Estize Kingdom found its way into Tanya's Magic Bag, where it would rest for the foreseeable future.

She had already been given several other items to fill out the rest of her equipment. None of them were exceptionally powerful artifacts, but they were still all at least legacy-class. Hardly valuable enough to have a dedicated spot within Nazarick's armory, but nonetheless past the peak of what might be seen in the surface world.

After that, the combat equipment she had brought from her own world had been replaced. They had been enchanted as a temporary measure, but it was inevitable that they would lack far behind the rest of the equipment Ainz could provide. Getting caught in the Evil Lord's attack just once had left it in need of field repairs, so it made more sense to reconstruct them into something more usable now lest they malfunction during at an inconvenient time during a battle.

It took them a few days, but between Ainz's item-creation magic, the head blacksmith created by Nazarick's crafting specialist, Amanomahitotsu, and technical aid from CZ Delta – whose background settings gave her knowledge even about something as specialized as this – they were able to produce a functional product.

It was difficult to compare the result to anything made by Amanomahitotsu himself, but the it was still worthy of being called relic-class. Considering the quantity of unimaginably expensive materials from YGGDRASIL which went into its production, it was an imperfect result. Still, though the head blacksmith bowed down and cried in apology for his incompetence, Tanya was full satisfied with the result. Upon being praised by Ainz, he burst into tears, as one might have expected from Nazarick's eccentric NPCs.

Thankfully, there was no need to replace the Type-95, the most complex piece of her equipment. The refined magic crystals could be switched out for high-quality data crystals from YGGDRASIL with a little modification, greatly reducing the volume required. Finally, the metal segments and fabric had been swapped out for leftover emerald dragon scales and tanned dragon skin, spares from when the three Dragonscale armor pieces had been made.

The finished item had been named "Verdant Dominion" by its creator, the head blacksmith. This alone he refused to budge on, declaring that once a name came to him during smithing, nothing short of Amanomahitotsu-sama's direct order could change his mind. While it was too grandiose a name for her liking, complaining about such a trivial aspect of the gift would be silly.

Aside from her equipment, Ainz had noted that her 'level' appeared to have increased since it was last checked. Those sorts of games were not something she was familiar with, having not touched them in decades, but the basic concept was simple enough to explain.

The process of fighting against and defeating high-level opponents would lead to a corresponding increase in her abilities. Even though all of her fights up until now had been against entities which could be recognized as allies, she had gained some experience and a measurable increase in her mana. The change was minor, but proved that it was still possible to grow from leveling in this world, though Ainz and the Guardians were evidently limited by the level cap.

Further experimentation was necessary to say for certain, but it appeared that not only was friendly fire enabled in this world, it was possible to train from fights against summons. Perhaps those very concepts were no longer relevant, or maybe it meant that the fighting itself was important, rather than killing the opponent. The finer details eluded her, but they were not of immediate importance.

Having finished her preparations and confirmed with Ainz that the Guardians had been recalled to Nazarick and were ready to act, she set out once again for E-Rantel.

The world stopped.

Just like each time before, it had now happened enough times for Tanya to no longer be surprised when it happened, but that did not make it any less uncomfortable. The strange separation from reality, the feeling of being held in an area under that being's control. There was no physical harm done, but the revolting feeling of divinity was only more nauseating now that she had the body of a demon.

"I am amazed. To think that even you would fall to such a level."

"Damn. I hoped it wouldn't be the case, but you really did follow me all the way to this world, Being X. You complain about being overworked yet you take the time to chase after me like this, truly the sign of terrible mismanagement. I feel bad for anybody who has to suffer through being your subordinate" (Tanya)

"… You have grown even more audacious than last we spoke. I gave you another chance to live, yet you corrupt your body. The blessing I bestowed, you reject and distort. What meaning is there to your actions?" (X)

"Are you so much of a fool that you can't understand how labor markets work? There was an open position for a devil, offering better benefits and a safer work environment. Do you not comprehend even that much?" (Tanya)

"You would give up the humanity you retained for that fragment of power, and for what?" (X)

The answer came in the form of a magic bullet. The voice she spoke to came from all around, with no visible source, yet she unhesitatingly shot at a specific spot in the air. An explosion shook the still world.

"… You would dare? After everything I have done to get you to repent, you would attack me, a God?" (X)

"Do you even need to ask? How many years have I been waiting for a chance to do that? To a fraud like you who calls himself a god yet fails to comprehend the most basic aspects of human behavior." (Tanya)

"Unbelievable. Everything, for that? Was it worth it, giving me this scratch? Enough. Enough of this. If you are so determined to spread your heresy even to other worlds, then I too will give up on saving you. If you are no longer human, then there is no longer anything to stop me from killing you myself." (X)

The formless mass which she had shot at began to rapidly grow in density. Though it did not take a solid shape, the pressure it was giving off rose exponentially. For the first time in millennia, the divine being manifested himself into a physical form.

"Thank you. Because of you, I was able to meet a real Supreme Being, one worthy of being called a god." (Tanya)

"I have run out of patience for your antics. Even if you beg now, I have no more mercy for you." (X)

Tanya smiled. It was a pure, wicked smile.

"Thank you, for being so wonderfully predictable." (Tanya)

"[Triplet Maximize Magic: Reality Slash]!"

* * *

Part 3

The third figure appeared in the quiet world created for only two. No, more accurate, Ainz had been present since the beginning, following behind using [Perfect Unknowable]. Compared to the danger of teleporting directly into an unknown situation, it was far safer to approach like this, even alone.

"Impossible… How did you trespass into this world?" (X)

"When it comes to PVP combat against a high-level magic caster, time-stop countermeasures are an important fundamental. Of course we would have prepared for this much." (Ainz)

"Stay out of this, undead. This concerns only myself and that thing." (X)

"No, no. I'm afraid I cannot agree to that. You see, one of my subordinates told me about how she had been harassed by a certain self-proclaimed god. You cannot expect that I would simply allow that to happen to someone under my protection, do you?" (Ainz)

Against the threat, Ainz's reaction was jokingly light. Even he was not immune to the pressure given off by a physically manifest god, but his body would stil suppress the fear he might otherwise have felt.

"So you too are a fool? Do you not even understand who you are standing before?" (X)

"But of course. Isn't it obvious then, that in such a case, we would have no choice but to mobilize against this threat? [Gate]!" (Ainz)

Raising his skeletal arms dramatically, he opened the gate behind himself. That was all the signal they needed.

Behind him, each of the Floor Guardians followed in sequence, fully armed and armored for combat. Against any mortal threat to Nazarick, this much would blatantly be overkill, but even still their enemy did nothing but watch.

"We can't have you escaping after we went so far as to arrange this welcome. [Dimensional Lock]." (Demiurge)

Demiurge was the first to act. Rather than opening with an attack, they first had to seal the possibility of their enemy escaping. The extent of his abilities were unknown, but blocking teleportation was an obvious first step.

"I am a God. Do you truly believe that I would need to escape from you?" (X)

"We shall see soon enough. Guardians, attack." (Ainz)

To the Floor Guardians of Nazarick, there was only one being worthy of a god, and his orders were absolute. The battle commenced.

Shalltear was the first to dive forward, alongside the pure-white clone created with her special skill, [Einherjar]. In perfect sync, the two raised their lances and charged towards the god at Ainz's order.

She was the strongest of the Guardians in single combat, losing out to Cocytus in maximum HP and damage, but far more balanced overall. Her skills and equipment had been selected for the purpose of maximizing her utility in combat. Strong, durable, versatile, she was an excellent choice as the first to engage against a completely unknown opponent.

In YGGDRASIL, there were no restrictions on what spells one could use while under the effects of [Time Stop], aside from the inability to directly attack anybody outside it. Normally, the user would cast buffs or summoning spells while isolated from the outside world, but as Ainz had discovered during his experimentation, this was no longer the case.

Most summoning skills and spells could no longer be used while time was stopped. However, some skills such as undead creation were an exception, but only when there was a body to animate for a permanent summon. The deciding factor for whether a skill or spell could be used was whether it was self-contained, or required interacting with the outside world.

For example, according to the game's lore, Demiurge's Evil Lord Summons would call forth a demon from the world of Muspelheim, the land of fire. Since the effects of stopping time would only reach the caster's immediate area, another world was naturally not included, so the skill would fail. On the other hand, Shalltear's [Einherjar] would create a copy from her own body, so it could be activated even in this situation.

Einherjar could not copy her magic or skills, but both stats and abilities were duplicated from the original. Normally, it would be used to pressure an already exhausted opponent by calling in a full-health level 100 character into the fight, but its current use was the exact opposite.

Since they had no information about the enemy's combat ability, Shalltear called out Einherjar immediately before the start of the battle for use as a sacrificial pawn. Aside from having to wait 100 hours before it could be used it again, there was no cost to Nazarick even if it was destroyed. Seeing how the god would fight once before engaging him themselves would go a long way to avoid any of the actual Guardians getting killed due to a lack of information.

In response to the flying charge, Being X formed a massive two-handed sword using the mass of its body, swinging it in a wide arc towards the two. Shalltear flew up to easily evade the telegraphed attack, while Einherjar raised its white lance to receive the blow, getting blown back by an explosion of force.

Though Einherjar had clearly lost the exchange, everybody watching internally breathed a sign of relief. Their opponent may be powerful enough to overpower a level 100 entity, but it could not kill it in a single attack. With that in mind, they would have to fight cautiously, but there was no need to fear instant death from a single misstep.

Their exchange continued for several more rounds while the other melee fighters took position to surround their lone opponent. Einherjar would immediately fly back in upon taking a hit to draw its focus, whereas Shalltear herself prioritized evasion whenever attacked, occasionally getting a hit in, though getting close enough to do so also meant a narrow window to withdraw without damage.

On the seventh hit, Einherjar's form dissolved into white light and vanished. Without a doubt, this was an impressive show of force. Tearing through an optimized level 100 NPC's defenses and exhausting its HP in only seven attacks was impossible even for Touch Me or Warrior Takemikazuchi. However, this much was well within expectations, even better than their worst estimate, in which a single attack would destroy it.

Having Einherjar take attacks without dodging was a bit of a waste compared to letting it draw out the fight, but the information it provided by dying was more important. Nearly every attack which came her way had been easily evaded, except for the one occasion when he suddenly turned away from the approaching Einherjar, receiving its lance in exchange for a surprise attack against Shalltear, which she was barely able to deflect using her [Impure Shockwave Shield], blowing herself away with the impact to avoid the sword.

Less than thirty seconds had passed since the start of the battle. In terms of the damage each side had taken, they had come out behind, but the vital stage for information gathering was complete. With the most dangerous phase complete, Shalltear drew back to finish the four-way encirclement.

To the left, Cocytus held several large weapons between his four hands. To the right, Pandora's Actor had taken on the appearance of Touch Me, donning the world champion-exclusive armor. From behind, Sebas stood ready to block any possibility of escape. Finally, Shalltear took Albedo's spot in the ring, leaving her to focus on the defense of those behind her.

Cocytus originally possessed twenty-one weapons, each with their own advantages. Of course, he could only select a limited number at a time: Two hands held his primary weapon, the divine-class halberd; Another held the sharpest sword in his arsenal, the Royal Blade God Slayer. The fourth hand did not hold his own weapon, but one lent to him by Ainz: Takemikazuchi Hachishiki, the favorite weapon of Cocytus's creator, Warrior Takemikazuchi.

Against an enemy who was certainly stronger than them, pulling out the unused equipment from the rest of the 41 was an obvious choice. Still, the suggestion had to come from Ainz himself, as the Guardians would never consider requesting the equipment of the Supreme Beings for their own use. Getting Cocytus to accept Takemikazuchi Hachishiki had required a great deal of effort, having to phrase it as loaning the weapon, though Ainz had every intention of letting Cocytus keep it afterwards.

Similarly, Pandora's Actor had been equipped with the full set of Touch Me's equipment, including the world champion armor which transcended ordinary divine-class items. Even if he could only copy 80% of their abilities, that placed was 80% of the base stats of Touch Me, one of the strongest characters in all of YGGDRASIL, plus the full power of his divine-class equipment.

In terms of stats, he was stronger than anybody else present, Ainz and Shalltear included. Unfortunately, this did not allow him to copy Touch Me's incredible skill as a player, so Pandora's Actor would still pale in comparison to the original. Nonetheless, he was an incredible asset in battle.

Cocytus and Pandora's Actor stood opposite each other, with Being X between them. Both were equipped to deal damage, forcing their enemy to expose his back to one of them whenever he blocked attacks from the other. To either side, Sebas and Shalltear stood ready to fight, but neither carried equipment aside from their normal set.

For Sebas, there were no suitable pieces of equipment for an unarmed, unarmored monk. There were members who would fight with their fists, but this did not mean their weapons would be compatible with Sebas. For example, Yamaiko's gauntlets – the Iron Fist of the Schoolmarm – were massive striking striking weapons. Like the rest of her heavy armor, they would hardly be an effective match for Sebas's agility-based monk build.

Shalltear retained her own equipment for the opposite reason. Peroroncino had optimized her equipment as much as he could without exhausting Nazarick's entire treasury. Though the Spuit Lance was her only divine-class item, every other piece was legendary-class, carefully picked out to maximize her potency in combat.

There were other pieces among the equipment left behind by Ainz's companions which she was capable of using, but none which would give enough of a benefit to justify switching away from what she was used to. YGGDRASIL would allow players to switch out NPC equipment as often as they liked without penalty, but the Shalltear fighting now was not just a collection of data, but a proper person.

Fighting in new equipment would take time to get used to, and it would take a considerably long time before she was comfortable enough with it to use it in a serious life-or-death battle. Cocytus was proficient in the use of nearly any melee weapon, so using Takemikazuchi Hachishiki was only a minor change, but Shalltear switching to a new set of armor would definitely get in the way of her mobility.

The two of them were there to support Cocytus and Pandora's Actor, forcing their opponent to split his attention. Any one of the four could do a substantial amount of damage if ignored, so he would have to remain on guard for all of them, thereby weakening his defense against attacks from any one direction.

Trusting that his allies would do their part in aiding him, Cocytus began his attack. Three weapons swung out, two clashed against the god's greatsword, while the third cleaved into his form. The blow would be enough to instantly kill anybody weaker than the Pleiades, but the god shrugged it off as if it were natural. Knocking back the Cocytus's swords with brute strength, he swung the blade around his head and back down towards Cocytus.

Unlike Einherjar, a nearly mindless golem-like construct which could only block attacks head-on, Cocytus responded instantly and with perfect form, parrying the incoming sword while lightly stepping out of the way. With precise footwork unimaginable from his massive form, he avoided the incoming weapon with the absolute minimum movement. Simultaneously, he shifted his tail to maintain his balance while once again striking the god's side with his halberd.

The overwhelming difference between their skill immediately became apparent. Cocytus's attacks might as well have been scratches to a god, whereas his exoskeletal armor would do little to protect him if he were to directly receive even a single attack. Even just parrying attacks took all his strength, while his own attacks could be lightly swept aside.

Despite this disadvantage, not a single attack could reach Cocytus's body. Each time it was only by a hair's breadth, but he continued to step just out of reach of the incoming attacks. Meanwhile, not only would Cocytus counterattack, but each time the god occupied himself with an attack, he would receive one or more attacks from behind, occasionally enough to stagger him slightly.

While the four engaging Being X in melee combat, the rest of the Guardians were not idle, and were providing their own support from behind. Any more than that would start to get into each other's way, but with sufficient skill it was possible to add ranged attackers to this count.

Aura was the prime example. Though her primary weapon was a whip, her skill with a longbow was no less exceptional. Befitting her Sniper class, she could get arrows through the small gaps left by the melee attackers, piercing her target with every shot.

Using a normal bow carried the added advantage of not affecting the Guardians even if she were to miss, as their equipment would negate all physical projectiles. Out of concern that their opponent might possess a similar immunity, she had also practiced with Peroroncino's Hou Yi's Bow, which had been stored in a wooden stick now in her vest.

Its magic projectiles would do elemental damage and could not be defended against by physical means alone, but they were also slow and large. No matter how much skill and practice Aura possessed, not hitting the Guardians between herself and her target would be a difficult task. Furthermore, her stats were poorly suited for magic attacks, so despite being a stronger weapon, Hou Yi's Bow was her backup. Since physical arrows appeared to be effective, she kept it stored away and continued to use her own longbow.

A similar role had been assigned to Tanya, who was circling the sky around the battlefield to repeatedly strike from behind. Using a larger formula would definitely cause collateral damage, so her shots were hardly significant, but getting shot in the back of the head with at an unpredictable rate was enough to serve as a distraction, even if the damage caused was trivial.

Originally, Demiurge had suggested that she retreat once her role as bait was finished, but she had insisted on staying around to keep shooting her enemy. It was a far more dangerous position, but after so many years of his harassment, she didn't want to miss her chance at some petty revenge.

She knew that it wasn't the most logical choice. Given how frail she was compared to any of the level 100 Guardians, she would be killed with a single attack, without a doubt. Despite this, knowing that death wasn't final anymore was enough assurance of her safety, as she could just be resurrected.

Tanya herself couldn't be sure whether this detachment from life was an effect from no longer being human, but she had increasingly come to view death as just a temporary setback, the realization making her feel discomfort and relief in equal parts.

She was used to this separation between body and mind to some degree. Ever since she had become Tanya, there were often times when she felt like the girl's body didn't fit with what _he_ believed _himself_ to be, but this resistance had grown less common over the years, settling into a reluctant acceptance. The detachment she now felt was of a different nature, marking the shift to prioritizing her continued existence rather than her life.

Realizing that her mindset was being influenced was concerning, but she couldn't just dismiss the new view as entirely irrational. With resurrection available at a minor cost, her very life, formerly irreplaceable, was now just another resource available to her. She was far more willing to risk losing it once if it meant personally seeing her ancient enemy die.

Four were engaged in melee combat. Two more assisted from a distance. Finally, Ainz and three others watched from a distance.

Albedo stood at the front with her black kite shield and bardiche ready. As the strongest defender in Nazarick, her task was to protect Ainz and the other three behind her. Though she was strong enough to hold her own as one of the attackers, the Guardians had unanimously insisted that she be allowed to take this role instead.

Naturally, the next two by Ainz's side were the remaining humanoid Floor Guardians, Mare and Demiurge. Neither was well-suited to a fight like this, but they were still level 100 NPCs capable of providing support to the others.

If Aura was a tamer who would form a party with her monsters to hunt an individual enemy, then Mare was a one-man-army who could stand alone against any number of opponents. Behind his gentle demeanor, he was a walking catastrophe whose expertise in attack magic was second only to Ainz. If ordered to do so, he could casually annihilate a small kingdom overnight.

As most of his attacks were area-of-effect spells, he was not well suited to fighting against a single strong opponent. He was here to provide support with enhancement magic and healing, which could be described as his secondary specialization.

Demiurge was likewise not suited for direct combat, as most of his combat skills would either summon allied demons or inflict debuffs on opponents. He lacked much in the way of support magic, and his direct magic attack power was closer to Narberal than to Mare.

With his demon summoning ineffective while time was stopped, the plan was for him to use [Dimensional Lock] and similar skills, those which affected everybody in an area regardless of level or resistances. Their own teleportation would be sealed as well, but the fact that Demiurge could disable it at will should they need to retreat meant it was still to their advantage.

Aside from those skills, he had gone into the fight fully expecting his other skills to be effortlessly resisted. Upon actually trying one, he was shocked to see it actually take effect, if only for a moment.

"The debuff skill activated? He doesn't have resistance against negative energy?" (Demiurge)

He inadvertently leaked his surprise, which spread to the nearby Ainz.

"A weakness of his? If that's the case, we should inform Shalltear and the others…" (Ainz)

"No, I don't believe so. To be more precise, not one of the debuff skills I activated were resisted. They were cancelled almost immediately afterwards due to the level difference… It is hard to believe, but he does not appear to possess any status resistances at all." (Demiurge)

"That's ridiculous. Who would go into a fight of this level without at least a basic set of immunities? Could he really have gone into this fight without any sort of preparation? No, has he never fought strong opponents at all?" (Ainz)

"That may be the case. I cannot imagine any other reason why somebody capable of changing their form would use a humanoid form to fight against so many opponents. My knowledge of swordplay is limited, yet even I see the difference in skill between him and Cocytus." (Demiurge)

"Indeed, compared to Cocytus's skillful fighting, he might as well be a toddler with a club. Is that how my first fight as Momon appeared to outsiders as well?" (Ainz)

"Certainly not, Ainz-sama. While your martial skill was limited, your other battle experience compensated for it to some degree." (Demiurge)

"Well, that's reassuring…" (Ainz)

The two continued to calmly watch the fight while providing some minimal support. From appearances alone, the fight looked to be to Cocytus's advantage, but it was hard to believe that would last. Maintaining this balance required Cocytus's full attention, while Being X only had to keep flailing around. In such a situation, Cocytus would definitely be the first to get exhausted and make a mistake.

"Even though he's been taking our attacks for several minutes now, it's all scratches to him. I've been recording his HP with [Life Essence] this whole time, and he only just passed below 99.9% of his maximum HP. His health is bottomless." (Ainz)

"Is it possible that is false data?" (Demiurge)

"While I can't rule it out entirely, I honestly doubt he would do that without preparing even basic resistances. That much HP may just be standard for a god." (Ainz)

"I cannot imagine even Cocytus could continue to exhibit that level of skill for a full week of fighting without pause. We would need to rotate out fighters and rest, but our enemy is not likely to be so polite as to let us." (Demiurge)

"… We're getting nowhere at this rate. We need some way to break through this situation… No, if he truly has no resistances, then maybe… Defeating the level gap would be difficult, but if I applied all my buffs…" (Ainz)

Ainz began to mutter to himself, thinking of a solution. Displaying his absolute trust in their master, Demiurge simply smiled and waited for Ainz's orders.

"It's close, but I think it'll work. Demiurge, inform Albedo that I will be advancing in exactly three minutes. She is to protect me at any cost. Mare, apply every luck and magic boosting buff you have to me as well." (Ainz)

"U-understood!" (Mare)

"Ainz-sama. Please leave your safety to us as you execute the fool who dares to call himself a god in your presence!" (Demiurge)

"Umu. I am counting on you. [Perfect Unknowable]." (Ainz)

In front of the bowing Demiurge, Ainz's form vanished into the air.

_He doesn't appear to have noticed my disappearance. Now then, I have four minutes to act, the full duration of [Perfect Unknowable]. As long as I don't actually attack, I can buff myself without breaking the spell. This is not a conventional fight, so I need a very irregular set of buffs. I want every single spell with that effect, no matter how low-level it may be…_

_I'm glad I spent all that time memorizing YGGDRASIL's spell list… It dug into my sleep time, but now it's more than paying for itself. Out of my 718 spells… 45 apply, __plus 22 skills__? Starting from magic-boosting buffs, then to effect-specific ones, __lastly skills…_

Ainz nodded to himself, satisfied by his memory, then began chanting.

"- [Bless of Magic Caster], [Greater Full Potential], [Full Potential], [Magic Boost], [Lesser Magic Boost], [Mantle of Chaos], [Draconic Power], [Penetrate Up], [Greater Luck], [Luck], [Chance's Blessing], [Origin of Despair], [Curse Mastery], [Lich Flame], [Undead Flame], [Greater Counter Resistance], [Counter Resistance]…" (Ainz)

Ainz carefully thought through every single buff spell he knew of, picking out those with the effects he wanted and casting that subset of spells. Mare would add some more to the list, which may have some overlap due to his invisibility, but Ainz had to eliminate any chance of his intentions being revealed before his final spell activated.

He was gambling on his opponent's pride preventing him from escaping the range of the spell, as well as his lack of knowledge on how to resist its effects. It would be a stretch in any normal PVP against level 100 players, but his observation of Being X up until now implied that it might yet work.

"Skill: [The Goal Of All Life Is Death]!" (Ainz)

Beginning his march forward, Ainz activated his final skill, the lynchpin at the core of his plan.

"Now then, we shall test my calculations… The ability to kill even that which does not live, will it be enough to kill a god?" (Ainz)

He spoke to nobody in particular, not that there was nobody who could hear him while [Perfect Unknowable] had not yet expired.

Exactly on time, Albedo jumped forward from behind, readying her bardiche a short distance in front of him. Though she could not see his position, her guess as to where he would stop was nearly perfect. Inwardly smiling, he took out a crystal hourglass and raised his hands.

The dome of magic circles spread around him, and simultaneously he felt [Perfect Unknowable] fade away. Ainz felt the full pressure of the god's strength wash over him, with just a tinge of fear mixed in, but he ignored it and shattered the hourglass in his hand.

"Super-tier magic, [Death's Gift]!" (Ainz)

The golden clock at Ainz's back rang once, acknowledging the trigger. The sole hand on the clock's face advanced with a tick.

_Tick, __1._

Releasing a shockwave of magic with a swing of his sword, the god lunged in the direction of Ainz.

_Tick, __2._

Ignoring Shalltear's attack which cleanly ran through his body, he dove past her.

_Tick, __3._

Albedo drove the hilt of her massive bardiche into the ground. The final skill of her Blackguard job, which could draw all attacks towards herself and triple her defense against them for the next twenty seconds.

_Tick, 4._

Realizing he could not ignore her, Being X shifted his charge towards Albedo, raising his greatsword overhead.

_Tick, 5._

The greatsword struck Albedo's kite shield, sending out a shockwave of force all around.

_Tick, 6._

Another strike came in from the side, faster than ever before. Albedo received it with her shield again. Damaging anything outside from inside a stopped world should not be possible, but the shockwave of magic ignored this law and crushed the ground behind her.

_Tick, 7._

A third attack crashed into Albedo's shield, cracking it in half and cleanly severing the arm beneath. She slid aside to avoid a fatal wound.

_Tick, 8._

Albedo ignored the injury, swinging the bardiche around to parry the next attack. The two weapons met with a ring of metal.

_Tick, 9._

The incoming attacks reflected the god's desperation. Several hundred times more magic went into the weapon to increase its speed and strength by a few more percent.

_Tick, 10._

Albedo activated another skill to negate a single incoming attack. Her bardiche met the greatsword with a bright flash.

_Tick, 11._

The overwhelming power behind the greatsword broke the head of Albedo's divine-class bardiche in half. The green glow on the weapon faded. The god swung again to finish off the defenseless Albedo.

_12._

The clock struck 12.

The sword approaching Albedo's head, the hand holding it, the body behind it, the radiating waves of magic, the pressure immersing them, the motionless world which surrounded them-

-vanished without a trace.

One second passed, two, three. Everybody stood in the empty grasslands, watching the wind gently shake the trees in the distance.

Ainz activated [Enemy Scan], which returned no results.

Albedo pulled out another weapon, preparing for a followup ambush.

Aura heightened her senses to watch for any movement within two kilometers, finding no movement except fleeing animals.

Tanya scanned for any distortions to indicate teleportation in or out of the area, but found nothing.

"You really are an amusing one, aren't you?"

Before she noticed, Tanya was holding a smartphone to her ear.

* * *

Part 4

A beautiful woman's voice rang out from the phone. Tanya could hear it with an unnatural clarity, as if the speaker was right next to her ear, with no phone between them. Cold and emotionless, the voice was flat to an inhuman degree.

Tanya's movement stopped when the smartphone appeared, though the sensation was completely unlike before. She had been hovering in midair only a moment before, but the same instant she became aware that the phone was in her hand, she was frozen in place.

Ainz and his Guardians were still freely moving around, healing Albedo's injuries. They took no note of her, neither of her irregular actions nor her absence, continuing as if they had forgotten her very existence.

"Do not worry, they will not hear you even if you speak now."

She was left with only the bare minimum freedom of motion to listen and speak, but even that was physically demanding.

"Who… is this?" (Tanya)

"I am D. It's fine if you just know that I'm an evil god." (D)

A single conversation over the phone was enough to give weight to her words. Even indirectly, listening to D speak made her feel like she was slowly being dragged into an abyss.

"It's good that you understand." (D)

Had her mind been read, or was she being watched? It could be either, it could be both.

"That was really quite something to watch. I think this might be the first time I have seen one of my subordinate gods get killed by a group of mortals." (D)

"Being X was your subordinate? Was he acting on your orders since the beginning?" (Tanya)

"No, I can't really be bothered to check in on what all of them are doing, the only ones I watch are the interesting ones. The first time I interfered with him was sending all of you to the school." (D)

"At least you're honest about being an evil god, unlike him." (Tanya)

"That is an accurate word to describe us, isn't it? Ah, but don't misunderstand, I'm not here to get revenge for him or anything like that. Rather, I'm here to reward you for struggling so desperately. I threw that school together thinking those worlds were getting too dull, but even I hadn't expected you to take advantage of it and get him killed. Congratulations. You were originally just one of many side projects, but with this, you're definitely worth spectating." (D)

She couldn't respond.

"Now then, what should I do about your gift? Each new encounter has seen your computation orb improved, but if I just did that, you wouldn't survive the result… That one got returned to me after she became a god, but it should be a good fit for you… It'll have to be adjusted to work outside that system… completed." (D)

The emotionless words with carefully-timed pauses mixed in made the entire speech sound like a preplanned act rather than something made up on the spot. There were too many expressions she was unfamiliar with to truly understand what was being talked about, but her memory of the last time a self-proclaimed god had modified her computation orb was still fresh enough.

"No, wait-" (Tanya)

"Then, do try to survive for my entertainment, second generation [Ruler of Wisdom]." (D)

The Type-95 she had been wearing disappeared, and in its place a flood of information. Fragments of memories, taboo secrets about the nature of the world, magic of all sorts.

At the same time, her vision was augmented with a torrential stream of data, containing every imaginable detail about the world for dozens of kilometers. Not just the number of blades of grass in view and the number of leaves on each tree, but their material composition, the flow of heat and magic in the atmosphere, the exact position and statistics about every entity within range.

Of course, this flow was accompanied by a piercing headache. No, it was not something so mild, given that she felt like her brain would be crushed by the volume of information being continuously driven into it. Still, she was paralyzed, no longer allowed to even scream in pain.

"I'm sure you'll find the answer soon enough. I have to get back to work now, so I'll leave you alone for a while. Until next time." (D)

The smartphone in her hand disappeared, and she fell towards the ground, very much unconscious.

It wasn't until a week later that Tanya woke up again.

She found herself in a bed in a plain room, from the ambient temperature almost certainly somewhere in the 7th floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. There was far less to observe in a single closed room than in an open field, so the pain was slightly more bearable. Still too much for her to stand up, but she could at least shift around in the bed and look around, though doing so brought on a new headache.

The pain was not bad enough to render her unconscious immediately after waking up, but it was simultaneously harsh enough to prevent her from sleeping. The only action left to her was to stare ahead at the room in front of her, slowly trying to get used to reading through the full volume of information. Even closing her eyes did little to help, as her entire body had effectively been transformed into a magical sensory organ.

She continued to wait in such a half-conscious state, occasionally losing consciousness and waking after indeterminate periods of time. Demons would check in on her condition, but aside from that she was just left alone. They had already long since tried various tiers of healing magic, regeneration, and status effect removal. As they could find nothing wrong with her, they did not know what to cure. These were not entirely meaningless, but they provided only momentary relief.

There were still a few options which remained untested: the super-tier magic, [Wish Upon a Star]; World-Class items; death and resurrection. Perhaps one of these would have an effect, but each would come at a cost. Since she seemed to be slowly recovering anyway, waiting would be the cheaper course of action.

Another week passed. Tanya spent several days trying to recreate a pain-numbing formula. Though the Type-95 appeared to have disappeared, it was more accurate to describe it as having been integrated into her. The same processes for activating magic which she was used to continued to work exactly how she expected it to, if not even more smoothly than before.

If not for the pain itself, she could have negated it immediately, but every attempt she made now was either interrupted midway through or misfired, sometimes causing her even more harm and cause her to pass out. It took nearly a hundred attempts before she was able to activate one successfully, which she used to help herself activate a better one to last a longer time.

This was still not enough for her to walk around, but she could at least sit up and talk now. She could look around, analyzing the contents of the room, trying to adapt to the flow of data. Unfortunately for her, simply negating pain did nothing to help process the absurd volume of data, so she went back down not long after her first success.

Still, Tanya continued to persevere. Her ability to use magic through pain increased gradually, slowly but steadily lowering the number of tries it took for her first pain-numbing formula to activate after waking up. Each time she read through the contents of the room, the time she could stay conscious grew by a few moments each time.

She was looking for something very specific. Without the constant throbbing pain to interrupt her thought, she had gone through D's words, of which one phrase particularly stuck out. "You'll find the answer," she had said. Not just 'an' answer, but 'the' answer, as if one had been left on purpose.

It may have just been a trick, but she didn't think the self-proclaimed evil god looking for entertainment would be satisfied with just watching her lay in bed for months. Trusting in that hunch, she continued to get up, determined to find the solution.

The third week came to an end before she finally caught on. What she found was not something present, but something absent from the room.

Nonstop practice had gotten her to the point of at being able to hold on to her consciousness even while scanning the room in full detail. Certainly, a bit of data missing from the incoming wave would be impossible to notice, even if it made no effort to hide, particularly when the wave would blow away her consciousness each time.

Looking carefully enough to notice actually made her laugh at how simple it was. She could read the details of everything in the room around her. Physical objects, atmospheric effects, magic, none were exempt from her scans.

Nothing, except for a small white spider sitting in a corner, watching over her from the corner like a living security camera. That alone drew her attention, and brought to the front of her mind one of the memory fragments which D had passed on to her.

She laughed and sat back, matching the spider's gaze with a smile.

"It's you, isn't it? You've been watching from the beginning, right? First Generation?" (Tanya)

Tanya waited, watching the room. There was no distortion as with every other instance of teleportation-type magic she had seen, but a negative space which she could not recognize appeared instantaneously in front of her.

"You actually came." (Tanya)

Recognizing it had been noticed, the negative space grew visible.

A pure-white girl, looking at Tanya through closed eyes. She looked to be in her late teenage years, though it was impossible to truly tell, since she may have frozen her appearance at that age. Her just becoming a demon had been enough to do that, so she had no doubt that an ancient god would be able to do the same if she wanted to.

At the moment the figure became visible, Tanya drew in her breath, then slowly let it back out. There was no question that the white girl was exceptionally beautiful, by any world's standards. With perfectly shaped Eastern features and a pristine, otherworldly look born from the complete lack of shading, her appearance would draw the attention of every single person she were to walk by, regardless of gender. In a very literal sense, it was a body hand-crafted by a god.

Seeing her, Tanya suppressed a shudder. Her appearance was striking, but not particularly surprising. More importantly, her attention was drawn to the girl's mana waves, or to be precise, the complete lack thereof.

Every single person had a distinct mana wave pattern, an identifier no less unique than a fingerprint. If the person in question was a completely ordinary, non-magical human, they would be weak enough to be unreadable without specialized equipment, while a mage could be identified from hundreds of meters away.

It was a simple task for her to locate Ainz or Demiurge if they were standing in a field several kilometers away. Being X could be spotted as long as he was in the same hemisphere as her, and D's presence was impossible to miss despite not even being in the same dimension. Yet, the white girl was a void, making a conscious effort to conceal her magic.

Certainly, any mage would be able to conceal their magic. Broadcasting a beacon for hostile artillery at your own position was suicide, so suppressing it was part of basic training. Such complete concealment was impressive, but not unexpected for somebody with centuries of experience.

What terrified her was the prospect that the girl was going through the effort of doing so to begin with. If she was being seen as a potential enemy by the girl, then even D's bottomless abyss of power was less of a threat – at least D would never take her seriously as an enemy.

Large countries could march into the jungles and deserts of small countries, only to be ambushed by the guerillas they considered insignificant. A powerful but arrogant opponent could be dragged down to the ground and killed by the ants it mocked, as Being X had so kindly demonstrated. However, things could be as terrifying as knowing that one such giant was giving you its undivided attention.

The girl did not speak, she just continued to silently stare at her. Time passed as neither said anything, until the girl lightly frowned.

Tanya had been waiting for the girl to speak, hoping to gain some room for negotiation by learning what she wanted first, but exhausting her patience now would be her loss. The girl was probably the only one capable of helping her, and she was probably well aware of Tanya's desperation. If she were to get upset and leave, there would be nothing else she could do. The initiative was entirely in her opponent's hands, and both of them knew it.

"You're the first generation owner of this… gift, right? Can I take that to mean that you know how to deal with the drawbacks?" (Tanya)

After a brief pause, the girl gave a similarly brief response.

"[Parallel Minds], [Thought Acceleration], [High-Speed Processing], [Heresy Nullification]."

_That's it? Was that supposed to be the the method? If the problem comes from a load of data impossible to process even with the aid of the Type-95, it gets solved by speeding up that processing? That much I can agree with, but is that supposed to be s__eparated __and run multiple times __in parallel __as well? __It was unstable enough in a computation orb, but now she's telling me to do the same thing to my brain? There are entire fields of psychology explaining exactly why that's a bad idea!_

_ I would consider refusing, but I'm still stuck between inevitably going insane due to this or potentially going insane due to that addition, it's probably still worth the risk. Then, the only thing to ask about is the outlier, the part that doesn't make sense._

"Heresy Nullification?" (Tanya)

"… Mental attack nullification."

That answered some questions, while also asking new ones.

Why was an ability given (forced) onto her classified as a mental attack against herself?

How could that so-called attack be nullified without removing the ability at the root? Would doing so interfere with the flow of data?

To begin with, just what was a mental attack? The concept made sense when looking just examining the words, but it was too unlike any magic she was familiar with to really understand. Could magic even be made precise enough to interfere not just with an opponent's perception, but their brain itself? Such absurd magic could be used for an effect as simple as sensory overload?

She began to ask a followup question, but the girl's annoyed look made her swallow her words. Rather than continuing to waste time, she skipped straight to the important part, the actual negotiation.

"What do you want in exchange?" (Tanya)

"… Distract D. Be entertaining."

Tanya was getting frustrated by the girl's riddles, but did her best to not let it show. It sounded like an incredibly simple demand. No, in truth it was a simple demand, likely one which wouldn't even require her to go out of her way to do anything, but getting involved with high-ranked gods was never a good idea.

Every time she interacted with these so-called gods, she had gotten cursed, or thrown around increasingly unscientific and illogical worlds. Faith-obsessed egomaniacs like Being X might well be the standard for them, so what would she have to do? The first time D gave any recognition to her was when she got involved with killing off Being X, would fulfilling her end of the contract require her to hunt down more self-proclaimed gods named after letters?

Few things were more expensive than something which is offered for free, but a price this ambiguous might just count. Unfortunately, she had learned about the 'mental attack' effect which she neither knew how to counteract nor had the ability to figure out while under its effects. She no longer had any choice but to accept, no matter what kind of poison the cure may involve.

"If it's just that, I'll accept. Sounds like that self-proclaimed evil god has been playing around with you for a while now…" (Tanya)

With a small nod and brief hint of a smile, the girl lightly flicked her hand, cutting off Tanya's consciousness before starting her work.


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue

The events of a month ago led to a spike of activity within the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, which naturally meant that much of Ainz's free time was eaten up by matters of ruling, if only to rubber-stamp for Albedo and Demiurge. With their plans suddenly accelerated well past their expectations, they naturally turned to Ainz for the next steps in his thousand-year plan, which he was eventually able to turn into a 'lesson' for his subordinates to plan well into the future in case of such unexpected events.

Although this allowed him to successfully avoid the first problem, it prevented him from being able to escape spending the better part of a month in his office. Adding to his frustrations, the culprit behind his sudden workload had spent the same month asleep after falling unconscious for unknown reasons. Initial worry gradually faded with reports of her gradual recovery, though she was either unable or unwilling to explain the cause.

Though it was true that his undead body couldn't get physically tired from the work, it was nonetheless exhausting to continue working with few breaks, made even more difficult to refuse when every single one of his subordinates insisted that they would work around the clock for his sake. Only when things began to calm down for everybody involved did he use visiting her as an excuse to take a much-needed break.

After quickly confirming Tanya's location with Demiurge – the same room on the 7th floor, which she had chosen to remain in even after recovering – Ainz teleported over to find her idle but fully equipped, already standing outside the room, waiting for his arrival.

"Just skip the formalities, we're the only ones here." (Ainz)

He cut her off mid-salute, then walked into the room and started casting a list of anti-divination spells inside. She simply shrugged and followed behind him, closing the door and observed his magic while waiting for him to finish. A minute later, he stopped casting and turned back towards her.

"So, how did you end up bedridden for a month? What was so important that you couldn't trust Demiurge to report to him about it?" (Ainz)

"Skipping straight to business? Well, you're pretty much right, though it's not really an issue of trust… It seems that evil gods take after cockroaches: Even if you crush one, there'll be another one crawling out as soon as you turn around." (Tanya)

Though she spoke of them as if they were pests, her choosing to actually recognize them as 'gods' leaked her discomfort.

Ainz let out a breathless sigh.

"I'll ask just to make sure I heard correctly, but the reason you were in a coma was an attack from another god, like that 'Being X' of yours?" (Ainz)

"No, that's the strange thing. She froze me in place, called herself an evil god named D, told me that she enjoyed watching us kill her subordinate, sent me a strange power as a 'gift', then just left." (Tanya)

"Huh? So he was a subordinate, but you got rewarded for killing him? Why would she do that?" (Ainz)

"I have no clue. She gave a power, which was itself a curse, but also left behind a solution, as if it were all a game. What she's thinking, what she's planning, or how it relates to you, I can't begin to guess at her motivations. All I can say for certain is that D is more than capable of being a threat to you." (Tanya)

"So why would you hide something like that for so long? At least if you told Demiurge and Albedo, they might be able to come up with something…" (Ainz)

"No, I can already see how that'd end. The difference between D and Being X is far wider than between you and an ant. They would never accept the idea that any entity could stand above you, especially now that you've gone and killed one who, if counting by energy alone, could generously be considered a god. I'm not saying that you can't tell them, but they're not going to believe any warnings from me. If they insist that you are some kind of supreme being and this somehow ends with combat, you will get everybody killed." (Tanya)

She paused to let the warning sink in.

"Finally, though I can't say for certain, I believe D to be the one being that school, as well as the one who brought you all to this world." (Tanya)

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the fire in his eyes flickering, trying to get an idea of what he was thinking. Disappointingly, he did not react to this nearly as strongly as she had hoped he would.

"You're much calmer about all this than I thought you would be." (Ainz)

"Huh? Me? I am?" (Tanya)

"You organized an ambush to kill off the first god to summon you somewhere. The time before that, you were threatening a self-proclaimed goddess when you thought she might be the one responsible. I figured you'd try attacking the one who sent you between worlds much the same way." (Ainz)

"Just what kind of impression does everybody here have of me? Any way you look at me, I'm a virtuous, peace-loving Japanese adult." (Tanya)

"… Not one of those adjectives describes you though..." (Ainz)

His muttering earned him an expression of genuine shock from Tanya. He made a show of trying to clear his throat before forcibly changing the topic.

"Well, anyway… What have you been doing these last few days, then?" (Ainz)

She appeared to think for a few seconds, then raised a hand towards Ainz.

"[Heal]." (Tanya)

A soft light washed over Ainz, the holy-element healing magic which targeted a critical weakness of all undead. Jumping back, he immediately began casting buffs on himself to prepare for her next move. Instead, she continued to stand in place, making no effort to follow up on the surprise attack. Confused, he stopped casting and cautiously asked,

"What do you think you're doing?" (Ainz)

"You asked me what I as doing, so I answered. Think about it." (Tanya)

Ainz thought through the spell's effects: the 6th tier spell, [Heal], was best known for its excellent cost-effect ratio. It was weaker than even some lower-tier spells, but it was great for any prolonged battle where the caster couldn't afford to burn MP on repeatedly using stronger healing spells, or when the target was another magic caster whose HP could be healed even without more expensive magic.

Thinking back to the game, he saw it as a good selection of healing magic, but the more fundamental problem stuck out:

"Weren't you supposed to be like an arcane magic caster? How are you able to use divine-type healing magic? Even before that, since when were you able to use YGGDRASIL's magic?" (Ainz)

"Correct. I was able to use D's gift to examine it when Lupusregina came and tried it. Your healing magic is much more effective than the basic medical support formulas I know of, so I spent a week recreating it. The effects are there, but the amount of mana they cost to use is harsh compared to what I'm used to." (Tanya)

"The ability to learn new magic without being restricted by your job or levels, and in only a week… That certainly would be powerful, depending on how you used it. How much do you know about its limitations?" (Ainz)

"Help me figure them out, when we have time. I'm interested to see if it can even recreate that 'Super-tier magic' you used before. You should know a few of them, right? Show them to me." (Tanya)

Ainz's reluctance to reveal his strongest spells and trump cards weighed against his curiosity as a gamer, to see how far his magic could be taken. Having expected this, she continued,

"Demiurge did mention that we should be taking advantage of the goodwill our performance gained before it fades. I think having more versatility in magic would help, like what you showed off before." (Tanya)

"Did you already hear about the plans Demiurge came up with after this?" (Ainz)

"No, but I have a decent guess. With the two warring major powers, the Kingdom and the Empire now united under us, the remaining Theocracy is now isolated. They are definitely plotting against us, but will never make a move openly. So, we use their human-supremacy doctrine as a justification to attack and destroy their government, then leave without taking any territory. Left without any central government, it won't take long for pressure and invasions from the south to force them to seek help from the only remaining power, namely, us." (Tanya)

"The details are lacking, but broadly speaking, you are correct. That does line up with one of Demiurge's proposals." (Ainz)

"Anybody could come up with a plan like that. The heads of the Theocracy themselves are probably already expecting an attack, which is why they are being so cautious not to provoke us. They will have prepared, which is why we need to make it clear that our enemy is only their government, not the people in the country. Ideally, even their army would be left untouched." (Tanya)

"Should I say that you are becoming more like Demiurge by the day?" (Ainz)

"I like to think that he's closer to our Empire's military high command, but I'll take that as a complement. Anyway, if your work is slowing down enough to take time off and come here, could you find time to show off some of your magic?" (Tanya)

"Very well. I'll find some time for that and get back to you later. In the mean time, go learn from Mare and Shalltear instead. They can probably explain the fundamentals better than I can." (Ainz)

"Alright, I will. Then, until another day." (Tanya)

She nodded, and waited for Ainz to teleport back out of the room. Once she was alone again, she formed a joyous smile.

_His anti-divination magic, resistance against the system's magic elements, plus permission to study from two other masters in different fields? I hadn't expected this much of a yield just from provoking him a little. Even if I can't find a use for most of those, every spell is another piece of documentation f__or__ figuring out how this whole system of magic works._

_ These gifts are amazing. I was afraid of the side-effects they might have, but it's more like having ten of myself to assign work to, the perfect subordinates (me) working under the perfect manager (me). I didn't lie when I said that it took s__everal days __to learn that spell in aggregate, but after splitting up the work and using those thought acceleration abilities the white girl gave, it didn't even take t__hirty __minutes in real time._

_ I thought he might doubt why I was able to recover so suddenly after she helped me out, but not only did he believe the powers I explained, he even gave me his blessing to go steal his subordinates' secrets? Wonderful. Truly wonderful._

_ He really is too trusting._


	8. Side Story

Side Story – A Certain Spider's Observations

Yeah, I should have known D wouldn't leave me alone for long.

She got dragged away to work by Meido-san, but she got a break after a few years. Or maybe she just ran away again.

Maou pushed some kind of button, and we all got forcibly teleported away. According to the rules of the system, teleportation was limited to only working on the user and allies, meaning this is magic from outside the system.

Gyuri-Gyuri was probably capable of it, but he wouldn't do anything as silly as making a button. Yeah, it's D's work.

To my credit: I was able to resist the forced teleportation!

For a second!

Yes, one whole second!

It doesn't sound like much when you put it that way, but the caster is THAT D. The ultimate evil god who could vaporize me with thought alone.

My years of practice paid off, I must really be a natural at Dimensional Magic.

Well, that bit of delay and altering the destination location was the limit. We were originally set to arrive outside some classroom, but I dropped us off outside, then dragged everybody into My Home for a while.

School? There's no way I'm dealing with that again… Ok, those memories aren't mine, but close enough.

Nai Wa~.

Not long after that, everybody started getting sent back, so I tagged along with the strongest-looking group, the Undead and company, plus the demonized girl they picked up.

I missed most of the backstory, but she seems to have gone along with them willingly.

A monster? Is she a monster?

Who becomes a demon by choice?

Give me back my suffering from when I woke up as a spider!

Well, whatever. Pretty much as soon as we arrived in their world, Maou pushed all the actual work on me and went off to take a vacation with Oni-kun and Kyuuketsuko.

It's okay, I wasn't expecting her to help at all.

No, really, go ahead. Enjoy your vacation.

I came here looking for worlds where I might be able to hide from D, but that plan went out the windows as soon as I got here.

This world's system, it's definitely something D made.

A prototype? A playground? It's different from our world's system, but I can already see enough similarities to guess that this was something she came up with.

I suppose it'd still be useful to dig around and look for anything useful around here, so the first target is of course Undead's home base.

Go, my spiders! Infiltrate their base and bring back their secrets!

… One of them got caught right away.

But it's fine! Why? Because she's a spider as well!

The spider maid who found my spy spider took it in as a pet, and started carrying it around.

It's like that, when you break into a building and they give you a tour? No?

Yeah, that doesn't normally happen, does it? Lucky!

Getting through after that was easy.

They're totally planning to take over the whole world, but it looks like Undead himself is just getting dragged along.

Both Undead and Demon Girl seem to be reincarnators, and originally adult men? They're handling it surprisingly well, then.

Suddenly becoming an undead monster, or a baby girl in the middle of a war? Yeah, that must suck. Ok, they had it pretty bad too.

No, Undead started out one step away from being a god, so he doesn't get off that easily.

Demon Girl, though? Sure, that's almost as bad as mine. Almost.

Rather, isn't she pretty scary, all things considered?

Starting out like that, without any sort of starting bonus or system support, and she comes out on top?

Potimas could learn a thing or two from her about plotting. Seriously scary.

The strangest thing is that unlike Undead and his minions, she's not using the system's magic at all. She's drawing some energy from it, but the magic itself is entirely her own.

Really?

She's not at the level of creating and modifying magic like I can, but aside from that, she's using sorcery just like mine. Is she trying to become a god?

She's definitely the one to watch.

Ah, they have a vampire girl of their own. Theirs seems to be stuck as a little girl and isn't growing though. Weird.

The two of them could keep up with Maou's drinking habits… May they never meet.

Why does that feel like I'm foreshadowing something?

Another god jumped into the world. Kind of just tore his way through dimensions, leaving a huge mess behind him.

He seems like the annoying type, so I'll ignore him. Yep, he's after Demon Girl, not my problem.

Or so I thought, but is she seriously trying to kill him? Wow, talk about planning big.

She's even talking Undead into helping out.

It seems interesting, so I'll sneak in and watch a little. If that crude dimension hopping is anything to go by, he won't be hard to hide from.

… Huh.

They actually did it.

Well, I'll be taking that corpse…

Stealing? I don't know what you're talking about, I found a dead god by the side of the road. Happens all the time.

The system spread a bit of energy to each of them, but most of it got left behind. It's all MA Energy that they can't use anyway, they won't miss it.

Ittadakimasu.

After that, D dragged me and Demon Girl away. She's the one who got the phone, but D seems intent on letting me listen in, so I'll go along with it.

… Oi, D. Don't go spreading my personal information so casually.

Don't gods get any kind of privacy rights?

Oh. Demon Girl got my [Wisdom].

… I'm not jealous. It's not like I'm disappointed that Wisdom-sensei is cheating on me. I didn't think that at all.

I said I didn't, so I didn't.

But still, will that work? [Wisdom] means [Detection] and [Appraisal], right? How is she going to handle those?

Ah, she passed out.

Well, yeah, of course that'd happen…

Hm… What now? Demon Girl is just sleeping.

I took a peek at her soul, and there's nothing too broken about it.

Okay, that's not entirely true. It's got a mess of other small pieces stuck to it, but the core soul is still stable.

Some kind of mental corruption? Is that something that 'Being X' did to her? Well, she got me a god's body, so I'll do her a favor and clean it up… Though she's still covered with a bundle of curses I can't begin to unravel, that sort of thing isn't my specialty.

I'll leave a spider to watch her while I go check in on Maou and the others.

Ah, she woke up. Now she's trying to force her way through [Detection]'s effects. It looks like D just integrated [Wisdom] directly into her soul instead of through this world's system, so she can't turn it off…

I'm amazed she even survived that. Those headaches were awful, but she's using magic despite that? Is she some kind of masochist?

… She actually did it. Is this the rebirth of the Magical Demon Girl?

I got around it with the system's skills, but could I have done it with brute force like that? Honestly, I don't think I could. Scary.

Well, I say that, but I can't see her ever being a real threat to me. It's not as though her attacks couldn't hurt me, but I can always just teleport away or in the worst case, discard the body and switch to a new one.

On the other hand, she's too fragile and reliant on magic barriers. No matter how strong those are, there's no point if you have eyes like mine, which can just ignore the barrier and attack the body.

It's just too bad a matchup for her to be a threat, no matter how powerful she gets.

I don't really see any reason to fight her, though. If anything, the fact that D is interested in her makes her a perfect distraction.

If Demon Girl becomes D's toy and draws her attention away from me, it'll make getting out of her sight much easier for me.

Is distracting D even possible? For all I know, she might just be able to watch any number of worlds at once, so this may all be pointless.

Well, even D couldn't interfere when Meido-san dragged her off to work last time, so I have to guess that there are limits. Even if she kept observing us after that.

It's worth trying.

She noticed the spider I left to watch her, and spoke to me through it…

Crap, what do I do now? I hadn't expected her to make contact so soon.

For now, make something up!

I teleported into their base. They have some defenses up, but those are all meant to block teleportation magic from the world's system, so bypassing it isn't hard. Potimas's barrier was much more of a pain to get around.

Yeah, Demon Girl definitely noticed me. Even though I was supposed to be invisible, she's staring right at me. No more point in hiding.

"You actually came." (Tanya)

Why do I feel like I got tricked? Even before that, she called me the "First Generation," but how did she get that just from a spider? Did D give her some other information I didn't hear, or was that just a bluff to lure me here? Ugh.

Actually, why is she still staring at me with such confusion…? I don't look that unusual, do I? With my camouflage, she shouldn't even be able to recognize me as anything except…

Wait, camouflage?

Ah. I was too busy playing around with copying their invisibility magic that I forgot to turn my camouflage magic back on. As expected of a copy of D's ideals, it's pointlessly conspicuous no matter the world.

I just kept looking at her. Hurry up and say something. Starting the conversation is too much of a hurdle for me.

"You're the first generation owner of this… gift, right? Can I take that to mean that you know how to deal with the drawbacks?" (Tanya)

As I thought, that's what she was after. I nodded.

She's still waiting for me to speak… Fine, I'll explain a bit.

"[Parallel Minds], [Thought Acceleration], [High-Speed Processing], [Heresy Nullification]."

Okay, it's more of a list than an explanation, but it'll have to do.

"Heresy Nullification?" (Tanya)

"… Mental attack nullification."

At least she understood the rest… That last one confused me as well, so I'll let that slide.

"What do you want in exchange?" (Tanya)

Ah… It comes to this after all. Recreating skills from the system isn't that hard for me.

D basically left slots for them when she put in [Wisdom]. This was probably something she was planning for since the beginning, given how easy she made it for me.

That part is fine, but… How do I explain this using as few words as possible? Should I call that spider maid here to interpret? No, that'd still mean explaining why I'm here… Okay, here goes…

"… Distract D. Be entertaining."

If she doesn't get it with that, I'll give up!

"If it's just that, I'll accept. Sounds like that self-proclaimed evil god has been playing around with you for a while now…" (Tanya)

She understands. Alright, I like her. Now go be D's toy in my place.

I nodded and got to work, putting her to sleep with magic. She'll figure the rest out herself once she wakes up.

I'll call in the favor once something comes up. I'm sure I'll be able to find some work to throw her way before long.

I wonder what she'll get up to next…

Oh. This must be why D enjoys spectating so much…

Don't tell me I'm becoming like that too…


	9. Volume 2: The Mage General: Prologue

**Volume 2**

The Mage General

Prologue

Part 1

Near the eastern border of the territory once controlled by the Holy Kingdom, inside a forest too far away from any major city to ever be approached by soldiers on an official mission, stood a small fortress. From the look of the broken, moss-covered walls, it had long-since been abandoned, having gone decades without any sort of maintenance. Curiously, the country itself would not have a single record of this fort's existence, no matter how far back one searched. After all, this century-old fortress had only been constructed around one year ago.

The real purpose behind this appearance was for the fortress to serve its purpose as a flytrap of sorts, luring in bandits, highwaymen, and other such thieves. They would find the 'abandoned' fort, occupy it to serve as a base, and usually celebrate with a drink. Come night, they would disappear from the continent, never to be seen again.

Two tall figures walked side-by-side down the long stone staircase leading into the dungeon. Despite the complete lack of lighting, neither had any issue navigating the corridors, nor with looking into the rows of cells at the recent arrivals within. Those within were either actively in the process of experiencing all sorts of atrocities, or temporarily being allowed to recover from said atrocities.

One particularly fat man had wavy patterns along his skin, one of the side effects of slight errors during the healing process over thousands of iterations. Roughly once every hour, the entirety of his skin would be flayed, stretched over a rack and carefully processed into parchment by a small insect-like monster. After a few minutes of processing, his wounds would be healed by another monster, a thin wooden humanoid covered in grasses. Afterwards, he would be left alone for some time while the insect carefully worked the skin into a usable parchment.

The most favorable description that could be given for the man was that he was still recognizably 'human', but not even that could be said about some of the others. Another man had all his limbs and appendages removed, before being force-fed until he was weighed nearly 400 kilograms, turning him into a living meatball which would be regrown when more meat was needed.

Aside from the humans, there were also cells containing demihumans, monsters, human-like monsters, monster-like humans, and even one with a living blob of flesh which would drive biologists and magic casters alike insane trying to understand its biology. Only the most recent group of thieves who made their way into the dungeon were still in reasonably good condition, mostly just because the experiments they were planned to become the 'stars' of had not yet started. At least, that was the case until today.

Any sapient creature with the slightest trace of humanity who came across this scene would certainly pity the individuals in the cells, transcending differences between species in the name of mutual empathy. Unfortunately for them, the two visitors did not fit into this category. Two demons who more than deserved the title of 'Extreme Evil'. Barely sparing a glance for the people suffering in the cells, Demiurge and Albedo casually carried on their conversation.

"I don't think it's been that long since I last visited, but your breeding experiments have come a long way in such a short time, not to mention the parchment production you've been working on perfecting. It's an impressive sight to behold." (Albedo)

"Thank you, Albedo. While I am truly proud at having received Ainz-sama's trust by being allowed to run my experiments independently, I must admit that it is also somewhat lonely without anybody else here. It's nice to have somebody with whom I can discuss my experiments." (Demiurge)

"Of course, I am also interested in seeing your results." (Albedo)

Albedo gave a kind smile, while watching a pair of cells the two were approaching. On one side: skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghasts, corporeal spirits, half-ghosts, lesser vampires, and liches standing idle in an unlocked cell. Across from them: dozens of bound women and girls, representing all ages and a collection of species, their eyes unfocused in the complete darkness.

"I can't thank you enough for setting up the experiment I asked you about. There's nothing I look forward to as much as the day we can report our success to Ainz-sama." (Albedo)

The two continued walking while making small talk.

"When Ainz-sama first told me that I should restrict my actions by not capturing human civilians excessively, I didn't understand what he intended. If it weren't for that requirement, I would not have gotten the idea to establish this outpost in the warzone between the Holy Kingdom and their demihuman enemies. Not only would our experiments have been limited without the variety of subjects, but the location even became the perfect base from which to control the war using Jaldabaoth." (Demiurge)

Demiurge's face carried an expression of ecstasy from having his plans corrected by his master. No matter how much effort he put into trying to comprehend Ainz's various plans, he would still be delighted every time he found yet another of those seeds – which Demiurge himself had overlooked – sprouting towards their ultimate goal.

"Unfortunately that particular experiment has yet to make any meaningful progress. It would not surprise me if it took the better part of a century for us to see success. In the meantime, my focus has been on researching the concept of levels as it applies to this world. For instance, how is it that simple humans can gain levels without fighting, or whether the strengthening they gain by training their bodies translates into levels." (Demiurge)

Albedo appeared considerably disappointed hearing Demiurge's response.

"Is that so? Is there really a use for paying attention to something like that? Even if we learn how lesser species grow in this world, at best it would mean strengthening the Pleiades or our Area Guardians. What benefit could Ainz-sama and us Floor Guardians who have already reached level 100 gain from this?" (Albedo)

"Now, don't jump to hasty conclusions. Between our observations of individuals of interest, combined with reports from insiders turned to our side, we have already taken note of some exceptions and irregulars: The assassins from Blue Rose who are all but confirmed as having the 'Ninja' class, or the Empire's four knights, two of whom are a 'Cursed Knight' and 'Shield Lord'. Even more interesting would be the girl who was Landfall, who became a 'True Vampire' without fighting a single monster." (Demiurge)

"Those are all advanced classes with a minimum level of 60, are they not? I do not recall any of them being anywhere near that level." (Albedo)

"Precisely, that is so. It may be possible for individuals to access advanced classes without reaching the minimum level, perhaps even without the classes which would normally be prerequisites for the advancement. If that is indeed the case, then the upper limit for what an optimal class selection would immediately become far more powerful than anything we could have achieved before, if we could only learn how to direct growth in a target direction." (Demiurge)

Originally, she had thought that this might just be another instance of Demiurge playing around with the inferior species he was keeping. Having heard Demiurge's explanation, Albedo's disinterest quickly disappeared, replaced by a fascination as she too began to consider the many possibilities.

"Assuming that we are able to do so, then – with Ainz-sama's permission – even those of us at who are already at level 100 could begin to replace prerequisite basic classes with advanced classes, or even… Could it be that the reason Ainz-sama had us all participate in the battle against that pseudo-god was so that we could save up unassigned experience points so that we could reassign classes, all in preparation for this?" (Albedo)

"From the very moment that he first recommended this field of study to me, that was likely already part of his plan. Ainz-sama has already entrusted us with the tools for strengthening ourselves to better be of service to himself, so naturally it is our duty to achieve the results he seeks." (Demiurge)

The two subordinates' ringing praises for their master's unwitting plans continued to echo through the corridors of the lightless dungeon. Although Ainz had similarly accounted for the possibility that such an opponent would grant them an immense volume of experience, he had already demonstrated that growing beyond level 100 was impossible, and had largely lost interest as a result. In his mind, spare EXP points would only be used for special EXP-consuming spells like [Wish Upon a Star] or high-level undead summoning.

Ever since he had first learned how the effects of [Wish Upon a Star] had been changed from YGGDRASIL, he had been looking for an opportunity to test the superior wishes which would cost five full levels. Without any game-like UI, he couldn't tell just how much experience he had saved up, but it was likely more than enough to lose five levels' worth without actually dropping below level 100.

The main reason he was still hesitating was because he was uncertain just how much he could wish for, as the effects were no longer multiple-choice, but could grant nearly any impossible wish. It was likely that even raising his level cap was an option, but he couldn't help but worry that there was a better choice he hadn't thought of yet. Worse, he suspected that making a wish which got rejected would still drain his levels, much like failing to dispel Shalltear's mind control had still consumed one of the ring's three charges.

Whether it was indecisiveness or patience, Ainz had yet to decide on whether to make a wish, or what sort of thing to wish for. He was reluctant to ask any of the guardians for suggestions, as their own values were far too different from his own. If they gave him ideas for how to strengthen himself, it would help, but once he asked it would be difficult for him to refuse any particularly villainous ideas. Since he was in no particular hurry, he was planning on letting Demiurge run some experiments related to leveling to see if it could give him some ideas.

Instead, he had set himself to figuring out the other half of the spoils of war. To Ainz, discovering the many secrets of YGGDRASIL had been one of the biggest draws of the game, a view shared by many of his guildmates. Every single of of the 200 World-Class Items had its own unlocking conditions, and they had hunted for them like nobody else. Many evenings would be spent trying to think of where a secret location might be, or some challenge the developers might have considered interesting enough to make a World-Class Item into a reward.

Days would be spent spying on hostile guilds who had their own World-Class Items which could be stolen, trying to spot some weakness from watching its use. During work, his thoughts would often drift towards the game whenever his job calmed down. When he came home to find YGGDRASIL undergoing server maintenance, he would browse the few wikis maintained for the game in search of new information.

Once, during a break at work, he had stumbled upon a forum where some players were bragging about the powers of the World-Class Item their guild had discovered, even going so far as to paste its flavor text and detail its powers. After lightly provoking them to confirm its legitimacy (he got them to post a screenshot from the game by calling it a fake), he showed the post to the rest of the guild, who could only laugh at the players' stupidity. Before the end of that week, Ainz Ooal Gown had taken custody of [Billion Blades], the sixth entry in their collection.

Their guild's collection of World-Class Items was arguably its greatest strength, so gaining more of them was an obvious path towards empowering Nazarick. Specifically, there was one World-Class Item whose acquisition conditions had been accidentally leaked by a YGGDRASIL developer, but nobody had managed to claim, to date: Defeat a World-Class Enemy with no more than 24 players, only 2/3 the members of a full legion, the maximum allowed by the game.

The leak had sparked all sorts of debates about its legitimacy. Some argued that considering how difficult each World-Class Enemy was in a normal battle, the devs wouldn't go out of their way to make such an impractical requirement. On the other hand, Ainz had firmly believed that those devs would prefer using an impossible requirement to debasing their World-Class Items by making them too easy to acquire.

Back then, it had just been arguments about empty theory, since even the top-ranked guild in YGGDRASIL never came close to succeeding, despite attempting the challenge four times. He had long since put the idea out of mind, but recalled it once again upon hearing Tanya's assessment of the self-proclaimed god she called 'Being X'.

Certainly, the plan required several assumptions: An external god had to be recognized as a World-Class Enemy despite not being one of the original 32 bosses, this world which wasn't exactly YGGDRASIL still had to provide item drops, and of course, the dev's comment from however long ago had to be legitimate.

Much to Ainz's amazement, the plan had gone even more perfectly than he thought possible. Not only was a World-Class Item awarded for winning with no more than 24 participants, but there was even a second one awarded for having fewer than 12 players fighting, something he doubted was possible in YGGDRASIL even if every single one of those players somehow had multiple World-type classes and equipment on par with Touch Me.

Putting his resulting doubts for the developers' sanity aside for the time being, Ainz had completely thrown management of Nazarick and their surface territories to his Guardians, told them that he would be running experiments for a coupe days, then locked himself in the Treasury while he tried to figure out how the two new World-Class Items worked. Only Pandora's Actor had been allowed in as the foremost expert on magic items, in no small part because Ainz didn't want the others to see the maniacally-obsessed personality he had written for his NPC, which would definitely come out when newly-discovered World-Class Items were involved.

The first item he had figured out quickly enough: The [Divine-Binding Chain] was, exactly as its name suggested, a chain which could tie down any enemy. The effect was plain enough, but a reusable rooting effect which could not be resisted was fearsome nonetheless. Against a warrior, the chain could bind them in place, taking away their ability to ever close into melee range. Unless the opponent was on the level of a 'World Champion', there was little they could do to avoid being taken out of the fight in an instant. Likewise, a bound ninja or assassin would make their stealth useless and evasion nearly impossible, magic casters could be prevented from teleporting or flying away, and so on.

Unfortunately, the second item was not nearly as forthcoming with its secrets. It looked like a pair of perfectly smooth tubes of increasing thickness, with the clarity of glass but the texture of a rough basalt. On one end, the tips of two cones met at a sharp point, sharing an edge around a meter long, then intertwining to form an ornate knot on the other side. Depending on how it was held, it could reasonably be a staff, spear, sword, or club.

Even more unusual was his inability to appraise the item with his magic. [All Appraisal Magic Item], the very same spell which had given him the details of the [Divine-Binding Chain], had been completely unable to provide any details as to the item's use, or even its name. Whatever the item was, it was so clear that it could be called invisible, a perfect black box.

Since magic was not an option, Ainz fell back to having to test the item's effects by hand, but this came with its own dangers. Some World-Class Items carried penalties which affected their user, the most famous example being [Longinus], the weapon which would annihilate both its target and its wielder. According to YGGDRASIL's rules, he should be immune to any negative effects because of the World-Class Item he kept on him at all times, but since the item was already defying the rules of identification magic, it might well bypass others as well.

They had started out small. Just wielding the item had not produced any notable effects, nor had he been forced to drop it like when he tried to equip an ordinary sword, so was it supposed to be a staff? He created a simple skeleton to hand off the item to, which was able to hold it without issue, so at least the item didn't have any noticeable usage restrictions. He took back the item, then used it to hit the skeleton, which shattered into shards of bone and disappeared.

Taking into account the strength difference between the level 100 Ainz and level 2 skeleton, this was the obvious result – a solid poke from his finger could do the same. Still, the item had not appeared to trigger any sort of special effect.

Like this, Ainz continued testing various effects. It did not appear to have any magic-boosting effects like a staff, but nor did it restrict him from holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown in his other hand and using it. It dealt no extra damage when used as a melee weapon, but it appeared to have no issue penetrating all sorts of damage resistances and immunities, even when wielded by the weakest of monsters. Physical barriers constructed from magic or even ordinary shields could stop it, but only by their material properties, rather than any enchantment: steel was steel, whether the shield was relic-class or an unenchanted sheet of metal.

Among the only properties he was certain of was that it qualified as a World-Class Item providing the same inter-immunity as all others, and that the item itself was completely indestructible against anything he was capable of using, up to and including a direct hit from Super-tier magic.

No matter what he tried, he couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation. Was it some kind of bug? An unimplemented item which was accidentally left in? Was it a useless joke item put in by the developers, or was it a special item so powerful that it transcended even the Twenty, one which resisted all magical effects, even appraisal?

He thought about it, he discussed his theories with Pandora's Actor – who was even more confused than Ainz – but never came to a conclusion. Before he knew it, a week had passed, at which point Albedo had practically battered down the door of the Treasury out of concern for his safety. After reassuring her that nothing had gone wrong and sincerely apologizing, he finally set aside his experiments until he either got some new ideas or came across relevant information.

It wasn't until almost a month later that Ainz heard Tanya's side of the story, learning about the self-proclaimed evil god whose timing was far too convenient to be a coincidence.

Immediately after the end of that conversation, he returned to his bedroom, cursing D for not giving him an instruction manual.

* * *

Part 2

Tanya tore through the air at the highest speed she could reach, trying to evade the many hundreds of projectiles falling towards her. Ignoring the fact that it was coming from the wrong direction, she could reasonably describe the situation as being under moderate anti-aircraft fire, the sort which she could visually evade with her already inhuman perception further augmented with the use of magic, but continuously doing so meant having to both burn magic power to keep up her flight speed, plus the upkeep required to prevent the effects of repeated extreme acceleration on her body.

The glowing needles she was desperately weaving through were created as part of the 10th tier divine magic, [Purification Storm], which buffeted its target with waves of searing light, dropped a massive volume of holy rain, and randomly struck with bolts of lightning. Dodging through the visual spectacle of an area-of-effect spell was an impressive feat, but since she was critically weak to every projectile involved, she could not afford a single direct hit, which would impede her evasion enough to very quickly turn her into a pincushion.

Three or four shots could be absorbed by her magic shell without issue, but if she had enough spare mana to guard against this kind of firepower, she would be much better off using teleportation to escape the area of the storm instead. That was unfortunately not an option, as the last time she had attempted using teleportation to evade, she had nearly been run through by her opponent's lance the instant she reappeared.

Still, Tanya knew that she would not be able maintain this status quo for much longer. Between the growing exhaustion from pushing her concentration to the limit and her rapidly depleting mana reserves, she would definitely become unable to fight before her opponent.

Although invisibility magic was unlikely to work, the storm she was caught in the middle of made for an excellent source of cover. Since she was unable to spot her opponent from the inside, Tanya should likewise be unrecognizable among the clouds of light. Calling up a decoy, she had it charge straight towards her waiting opponent, while she herself flew in the exact opposite direction.

From the combination of the 'gifts' given to her by D and the white girl, she could still see what was on the other side of the storm with perfect clarity, regardless of the blinding lightshow and roaring thunder. Tanya's decoy did its job of attracting attention, while she herself used one spell to hide her magic, alongside an offensive formula in their direction. Without waiting for the storm to clear, she fired off a penetrating bolt with as much velocity as she could put into it.

Since the shot was constructed out of materialized mana without a physical shell, it could largely be disassociated from the conventional laws of physics, flying off at a speed well past forty times the speed of sound, aimed perfectly on target. She had timed it to the exact moment when her decoy was about to be attacked, and her opponent's balance was at its worst. Between when the formula round exited the storm and hit the target, only two milliseconds passed. Yet, the round meant to hit her opponent's center only scraped her side as she twisted away from its path.

"Are you kidding me, that's basically precognition…" (Tanya)

That impossible evasion draw a frustrated mutter out of Tanya. Exceedingly few individuals could ever perform such a feat, but her present opponent – Shalltear Bloodfallen – was one of those scarce few. However, not even she was not able to fully evade the attack, taking a considerable volume of blood due to its speed, causing her to grimace.

Tanya began constructing another formula for a followup attack, but Shalltear counterattacked before she could finish. Since the storm was still preventing her from properly aiming a direct single-target attack like [Brilliant Radiance], she responded by creating a [Purifying Javelin], throwing it back along the exact path she had been shot from.

Once imbued with magic, the attack would be guaranteed to hit its target, no matter how she attempted to evade or how many barriers she put between them, a lesson she had learned the hard way the first time. At best, she would be able to delay how long it took to reach her. The massive white stormcloud took up the majority of the graveyard they were in, and escaping it had forced Tanya to retreat into a corner of the room, leaving her only one direction to escape: down.

She dove towards the ground, then leveled off and sped along the ground, but as expected, the javelin sped up with her and continued to catch up. But, this was fine. As long as she kept up this speed, not even Shalltear could keep up with her easily.

Although she could neither block nor evade the javelin, she could limit its damage, to a degree. Maintaining her momentum, she put her left hand forward, directly in its flight path. The instant it made contact, she accelerated upwards, pulling herself out of the way of the remaining length of the javelin.

The [Purifying Javelin] had only been in contact with Tanya's palm for a fraction of a second, yet the damage it dealt was far from negligible. Had it been an ordinary spear, she could have just masked the pain and ignored it, but it was a mass of holy-element mana, not a physical object. She may have had equipment providing resistance, but that was only enough to reduce a demon's critical weakness to an ordinary weakness.

Rather than piercing through her hand, it instead burned through her whole body, spreading an acute pain to every functioning nerve she had, suffering so intense that it could not be masked with a simple pain-negating formula, at least not without numbing her entire body. Still, she grit her teeth and bore the pain, healing off the damage without interrupting her flight.

Tanya took aim and returned fire to put some pressure on Shalltear, who effortlessly evaded each shot while throwing back spells of her own. Neither was in a good position to gain an advantage, so the two simply continued to exchange equal blows. Although neither could get a solid hit in, they did not want to leave the other uninterrupted long enough to let her set up something stronger.

This was an incredibly disadvantageous exchange for Tanya. Although the ordinary attacks she was throwing out were much cheaper than the ones Shalltear was using, Tanya only had barely more than 10% of Shalltear's mana capacity. A continued battle of attrition would mean her defeat, yet she had no way to press an advantage. Of course, both of them were well aware of this difference.

""[Time Accelerator]""

Shalltear's shout and Tanya's mutter overlapped perfectly. The spell was 9th tier, and while it was not nearly as expensive as a full [Time Stop], it still had a very high MP cost, even higher than the average 10th tier spell. Because equipment granting immunity against time-based effects was divine-class or above, she had never received such an item, a fact Shalltear could take advantage of.

When both of them used the same spell, Tanya's lower mana capacity meant that she would disproportionately lose out in the exchange. That being said, ignoring it would let Shalltear close into melee range and set up an ambush once the effect expires would be far, far worse. Thus, she could only accept the exchange.

The world slowed, leaving only the two of them moving at full speed in the glacial environment. No matter how many times Tanya had used this magic since she first recreated it, she could not get used to the effects: the air resistance increased tenfold, to the point where her flight speed made the air strike against her barrier; her movement became sluggish, as if returning to being an ordinary human after getting used to a demon's strength; projectiles slowed, making them trivial to dodge even at point-blank range.

A moment later, her eyes widened as she realized her mistake. The difference between their physical abilities was just too great, and weakening them both equally only made it worse for her. Tanya's speed and maneuverability were her only solid advantages, something not one of Nazarick's Guardians could come close to comparing with. That is, under ordinary circumstances. With the obstruction from the effects of [Time Accelerator], she would not be able to accelerate the way she needed to.

Shalltear activated the highest-tier teleportation spell, [Gate], stepping through the portal to place herself directly in Tanya's flight path without any delay, only a few meters in front of her. Tanya had prepared an attack formula in response to the telegraphed attack, but in the slowed world, Shalltear lightly swiped it aside with one hand while smiling. Tanya decelerated with full force, but since her attack couldn't stagger Shalltear even slightly, it was impossible to evade.

_Damn, I shouldn't have answered that provocation. Even if it let her set up a perfect ambush, I could have used the time while she can't attack to set up a more destructive formula, one she can't ignore __or evade __at the range she would stay in to attack. It looks like no matter how many years of combat experience you have, no matter how much you practice and study the effects of any sort of magic, it doesn't necessarily transfer to having experience with using tiered magic in combat._

Her speed of thought had been accelerated enough for her to think about her error, but her body could not keep up enough to avoid the situation. She could only let out a resigned sigh as her momentum carried her forward.

Shalltear casually released the Spuit Lance, letting it disappear, simply thrusting her hand forward, impaling Tanya through the abdomen with one arm while pulling her into a gentle embrace with the other.

Tanya was aware of the fact that she had just been stabbed. Though Shalltear's arm was considerably thin, but the same could not be said about the armor she wore, which had a considerable girth to it. Although it had not gone through any internal organs which would result in instant death, there was absolutely no doubt that this would be a fatal wound for a human. Most likely, the size of the wound was enough that the one who received such an attack could not be saved even if they were already waiting on a surgery table, surrounded by the world's best doctors.

Thankfully, Tanya was no longer human, and her current body was substantially more durable than it had been a year ago. The gaping hole in her center was another wound, the metal gauntlet occupying that space was just an unusual sensation. A plain physical injury was not nearly as painful as her gently touching a high-level holy-element ability, such as the [Purifying Javelin] she had been forced to accept.

While maintaining her serene expression, Shalltear slowly pulled the armored hand out, continuing to lightly hold her up with the other. Tanya's raw body weight wasn't high, but accounting for all her equipment, she should weigh around as much as a large adult man, but to Shalltear she may as well have been a feather.

"[Maximize Magic: Heal]" (Tanya)

The words were somewhat distorted due to the blood which had made it into her throat, but the intent was still transmitted, and the spell activated. Viscera and organs reformed, covered with tight muscle and skin, and finally the self-regeneration common to high-level armor took effect, closing around the location of the wound without a trace. As a useful side effect, the blood and gore scattered around dissolved as they returned to their rightful place, and the scene of carnage around them vanished without a trace.

That is not to say that the traces of the battle itself had vanished. This large graveyard chamber on the 3rd floor of the Great Tomb was grand but plain, yet now it was covered with broken stone, holes in the ground, and large tracts of scorched earth littered the entire chamber. Despite that, nobody took note of the chaotic state of the room.

Having once been a normal dungeon, the first six floors of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had inherited a potent self-repair property at no additional cost. So long as the floor was not completely annihilated with a World-Class Item, it would repair even the most severe damage within a week. Damage on the scale of a single room would disappear within a single day.

In this battle-scarred underground graveyard, the scene of two young girls in an embrace made for a surreal scene.

"Do you truly not get tired of doing this sort of thing? The result is exactly the same each time." (Shalltear)

"I have general combat experience, but a battle in this world is too fundamentally different to what I am used to. This is by far the most effective solution." (Tanya)

"Even when you end up in this state after a few minutes?" (Shalltear)

"Of course." (Tanya)

Tanya did not hesitate before giving her answer. They had had eleven mock battles just like this before, and every single one ended with the exact same result, a crushing defeat for Tanya. Although she had healed off any physical damage from the battle, severe mana exhaustion meant that she would be unable to move properly for at least the rest of the day. Were she not being held up by Shalltear, even standing up by her own strength would prove difficult.

She had been given the opportunity to learn hundreds of different tiered spells from the Guardians, but there was a clear difference between knowing magic and being able to put it to effective use in real combat. Besides, few if any offensive spells could outperform her standard selection of formulas.

Out of the full set of spells and abilities she had successfully recreated, only a disappointing minority were immediately useful. Time manipulation was situationally useful, but often too expensive to be practical; divination would only help defensively, but being inside Nazarick meant already being under its defensive grid; offensive buffs would only be applied to tiered magic, not her own magic formulas; defensive magic could be useful, but in terms of cost-performance, it was at best comparable to a common mage's defensive shell.

The useful spells were primarily those used for healing and assorted utilities. Aerial mages would maintain a formula to prevent shock due to injury and pain, so as to avoid losing consciousness while in the air. This much was a standard practice to reduce casualties by increasing the proportion who could make it back to base for treatment, and was only made more effective by the addition of healing magic. As long as an injury was not immediately fatal, it could be accepted and healed off immediately afterwards. Right now, she would be able to work through getting shot through the heart or neck, maybe even recover from being a severed head, though she had no intention of going that far for testing.

Teleportation was exactly as useful as it sounded, whether for combat or strategic transportation. As a former soldier, she could easily argue that being able to ignore all logistical restrictions to strike at any undefended target would make for an terrifyingly potent assault force. Failing to protect any one location would leave it vulnerable to sudden attacks, whereas trying to defend every target would be the same as having no defenses at all. It would make for a truly unwinnable situation, so much so that she might have been able to single-handedly turn around the Empire's disadvantageous military situation with that ability alone.

Besides those, she was also grateful for being able to use the personal inventory. For reasons unknown, she had to spend a small amount of magic to open it or extract items, unlike Ainz or any of the Floor Guardians. Using a Magic Bag was exceedingly better than actually carrying objects, and pulling them out of empty space was faster still. This would have been far more beneficial were she still using a weapon with physical ammunition, but still far from useless.

This was among the many unknowns about how YGGDRASIL's game systems interacted with her as an outsider. She clearly had some connection to it, as one of the game's rituals had allowed her to become a 'Lesser Devil' and gain the stat boosts tied to that change, but it was difficult to tell how the rest of her levels were distributed, if she even had such a thing. Ainz could use the guild's Master Source to examine each of the NPCs and their status, but she and anybody else from outside who was now associated with Nazarick were not included in that list.

She did not appear to be restricted from using class-restricted weapon types, and her magic could in some cases bypass level restrictions, resistances, and immunities. At best, they could try to guess at her level distribution from changes in her health and mana, but this was a rough science at best.

In an effort to study these effects, Tanya's effective position within the organization that is Nazarick was changed to something along the lines of "Demiurge's Experimental Subject". After some carefully worded complaints directly to Ainz, she made sure that he would at least follow the principle of informed consent, for what good that did.

Since she was by far the weakest out of everybody who fought against Being X, the experience gained should have translated into an extraordinary number of levels, perhaps as many as 30 levels based on Ainz's rough calculations. In reality, she did not appear to have gotten more than 10, so they were trying to find the cause for the discrepancy.

Demiurge's current working theory was that getting new levels required real knowledge corresponding to the class's abilities, rather than just experience. Her previous abilities were already translated into job levels, meaning she now lacked the ability needed to have her experience allocated into new levels.

This experiment was meant to prove whether mock combat would allow her to gain more levels in whichever classes she already had. Failing that, they would next try to give her some new job classes by making her accomplish whatever YGGDRASIL would define as the requirements for some new classes she did not already possess. Remaining experience could then be spent on more devil race levels, which they had already confirmed could be done, so doing so would not prove anything.

Although the reasons behind it were a questionable, she saw no reason to object to something which would strengthen her ability to defend herself. Combat ability appeared to be a significant part of how people were valued around here, so getting herself to the point of being able to beat at least a few of the Floor Guardians should help her chances at promotion.

To that end, building relations with them was also an important step. Though there was nothing she could do about the most important factor – not being created by the Supreme Beings – getting Ainz's recognition made for a passable substitute. Gaining his trust was vital, of course, but making enemies of the rest of the organization just to get ahead would certainly come back to ruin her. With one major exception, her relation with the Guardians should be good, but that was only as a subordinate; getting respect and recognition as an equal would be decidedly more difficult.

Over the past few weeks, Tanya had fought against Shalltear repeatedly, and with each attempt, she would end up immobilized just like this, after which they would spend some time speaking casually, often about meaningless personal topics. This was the end result of her fights to win Shalltear's respect, though at the end it had turned in an unexpected direction.

Which is why she was currently being held like a doll by Shalltear.

"It's too much of a waste, when you don't take care of yourself like this." (Shalltear)

She slowly ran her fingers through Tanya's hair, which was disorderly scattered behind her. She had kept it roughly tied up before, but the simple hair tie had broken off at some point during their superhuman acrobatics.

"It's unavoidable. Even if I wanted to, it was hard enough just keeping mud out of it, let alone properly cleaning it on the front lines. Clean, hot water was a luxury, so the closest thing to taking care would be letting my adjutant cut it with a combat knife." (Tanya)

"The front lines? I'm not sure exactly what you are describing, but that doesn't really excuse you anymore. Nazarick's facilities for beauty are second to none in this world. Don't you feel ashamed appearing before Ainz-sama without first making yourself look proper?" (Shalltear)

"I admit, I never gave it much thought, or much effort. Back then I was more focused on getting people to look past my age, but now, it just makes me stand out around here…" (Tanya)

Tanya's objective impression of her own appearance would describe her as above average, though her complete lack of care for taking care of it did make it worse. Looking back, that had only been by human standards. When everybody around her was literally hand-crafted to be a perfect beauty, even the ordinary maids looked better than her, which made her lack of effort all the more apparent.

She was not nearly idealistic enough to claim that one's appearance was unimportant in a meritocracy. Were she applying for a job, the clothing she wore and the way she presented herself would both be an important part of making a good first impression. A good interview would still focus on qualification, but that was no reason for her to shoot herself in the foot just because she was still reluctant to accept that this was now her body.

"What is it?" (Shalltear)

Shalltear asked, spotting the subtle frown Tanya had inadvertently let slip.

"At first I got through it by telling myself that I would eventually grow up, but now, I really have no choice but to accept that this will be my body forever. I hadn't put much thought into what that really meant." (Tanya)

"What, was that it? Why do you care?" (Shalltear)

"I'm seriously troubled over this, what's with that response?" (Tanya)

Her identity crisis has been promptly rejected. Although her physical discomfort had already vanished over a decade, she could not accept the change so easily. To her, the knowledge and memories from her past were her last ties to the quiet life she once had in the peaceful, technologically advanced world of her original life.

"I mean exactly what I said, what reason do _you_ have to be concerned with that? Neither Ainz-sama nor anybody else within Nazarick would care for something like that, and I doubt anybody outside us exists who is capable of troubling you over it. Were your appearance causing trouble with a romance, I could still understand, yet that does not appear to be a problem in your case. So I ask again, why do you trouble yourself over such a petty issue?

I was created at this age by Peroroncino-sama, and I shall forever remain at this age, such is only natural. Do you believe I haven't noticed how Ainz-sama sees me? I have no intention of letting that get in the way of our love, yet you complain about mere appearance? Are you mocking me, or do you have some other reason you can't become a young girl?" (Shalltear)

"I apologize. I hadn't thought that far into it." (Tanya)

Although she had a considerably unusual problem, the two of them were among the few who shared similar concerns, though for different reasons. She may have been too exhausted to think clearly, and had said too much. Almost reflexively, she apologized for her mistake. Thus, she missed Shalltear's wordplay.

"Then it's being a girl which is actually troubling you, after all? Other worlds have some unusual people." (Shalltear)

Simply letting the comment slip without confusion was a tacit admission, enough for Shalltear to confirm her suspicion.

"It's obvious enough from the way you act. At very least, I wouldn't miss it easily. Demiurge probably noticed, but I doubt he cares. Albedo… probably never even looked at you." (Shalltear)

"If you already knew that much…" (Tanya)

"Does that past matter enough for you to abandon your future, and pretend to be something you no longer are?" (Shalltear)

"It was my objective since I was born, and still is, even now, no matter what changes." (Tanya)

Her original plan to get revenge against Being X had gone off without a hitch, but the other half of her goal was not merely to survive, but to escape to her own civilized world.

"You gave up being human easily enough, but sex and age are so important that you can't accept changing those? Those values of yours are truly incomprehensible. From how Demiurge described you, I expected you to be better at adjusting your priorities to your environment." (Shalltear)

"Thank you for the words of advice, Shalltear-sama." (Tanya)

The answer sounded forced, and intentionally detached, but Shalltear accepted it as evidence that she was in serious thought.

"Think nothing of it. You were never a rival for Ainz-sama's affection, so there is no need for hostilities. Ah, yes… if you need somebody to teach you how to enjoy that body, I'll welcome you anytime." (Shalltear)

Still somewhat unsteady from her mana exhaustion, Tanya got up to leave. After a few steps, she whispered a response.

"… I'll consider it." (Tanya)

* * *

Part 3

Following several months of stagnation, the economy in the city of E-Rantel gradually began to recover, and over time even started to flourish. Predictably, trade had been entirely cut off along with the end of the war, leaving only the surrounding agricultural villages. Even those were often too fearful of the undead in the city to travel to the city unless they were truly desperate for help.

With that being said, the number of villages which were desperate for help was not small. Many years of carefully-timed war declarations by the Empire had done their job of drawing away their manpower. Starvation and attacks by monsters had compounded to wipe out a sizeable number of villages, plus several more which had been burned to the ground by the Slane Theocracy long ago.

As of last year, the total harvest collected by these villages had dropped below half of what it had been twenty years ago, and while the effects had yet to really affect the cities, deaths by starvation were not rare. To their amazement, their undead conquerors opened their granaries and began selling off large quantities of food at reasonable prices, enough to at least survive until the first harvests of winter wheat.

With the coming of spring, a remarkably volume of grain suddenly began to flood the market from an unremarkable village by the name of Carne, which had inexplicably grown into a fortified town of some 10,000 residents. Large stone golems constructed roads and walls, well-built orcs and goblins worked the fields, which had been fertilized using the magic of third-tier goblin magic casters of unknown origin. Before anybody noticed, the town which had sprouted out of nowhere and the extensive fields which surrounded it were producing half the food in the entire province.

Around the same time, teams of dwarf craftsmen appeared to settle in the city, government-sponsored merchants from both the Empire and the Kingdom began to pass through the city, which sat along the sole highway between the two nations. Goods could once again flow, artisans restarted their businesses, and the economy finally started to bud. The recovery of the city was miraculous, almost as if it had been in planning since long before the war even began.

Due to the policies implemented by his subordinates, the Sorcerous Kingdom's reputation was incomparably better than it had begun, but no matter how much goodwill they bought through public works and urban development, many still feared that this peaceful occupation was all part of some nefarious plot. Furthermore, those citizens who had lost family during the war were unlikely to forgive them so easily.

The best case prediction gave two years until the city was stable enough to no longer depend on Momon, but full integration with the demihuman and nonhuman races was unlikely to make progress in any less than a full generation of humans. Staging a show in the Kingdom's Capital had made for excellent propaganda to this end, but it would not be possible to repeat without drawing needless suspicion about their involvement.

To the members of Nazarick involved in its management, E-Rantel was primarily viewed as an experimental ground in preparation for future conquest and assimilation. Perhaps a hundred years from now, it could become a shining beacon for inter-species relations, but currently the city was mostly of interest because of its famous residents:

Needless to say, the best known by far was the enigmatic Sorcerer King himself, Ainz Ooal Gown, the strongest magic caster in the world against whom any army was worthless. Second was certainly the Dark Hero Momon, the hope of humanity who could stand against him, the invincible guardian of the city.

Aside from those two living myths, there was also the prime minister Albedo, whose demonic beauty could gain international renown by word of mouth alone; the dark elf sisters whose incredible power was only known to a the upper echelons of the Empire; the strange demon girl Tanya, who had been recognized by the Golden Princess as a hero of the Kingdom. Finally, the newest arrival, the ancient vampire Landfall, who had unceremoniously showed up and taken a room at the Golden Pavilion Inn after revealing her identity a few weeks prior.

The unexplained arrival predictably sparked waves of rumors and conspiracy theories. Allegations included her being a disciple of the Sorcerer King, a diplomat and princess from an ancient kingdom, or a villain seeking revenge against the Thirteen Heroes. It didn't help that the vampire in question never showed any interest in the stories, or much of anything not related to Momon. This in turn led to gossip of its own, now focused on the nuance behind the meaning of Momon's mission to 'chase' two vampires.

Though these rumors were malicious in the eyes of those trying to spread them, their actual effects were underwhelming. To the people of E-Rantel, Momon's presence was irreplaceable, and the act of standing against the Sorcerer King in the defense of the people could not be washed away by some scandal. This was not the first time he had been slandered by his opponents, it definitely would not be the last, but the masses of evangelists for his heroics were a testament to the faith they had in him.

As for Keeno, simply being associated with the history of Landfall meant that her infamy was at its peak, while the identity of Evileye simultaneously made her one of the most famous names in the surrounding countries. If anything, overlaying the heartless and inhuman monster of nightmares with the innocent little girl in love before them did wonders for her image. A few fanatics still whispered about conspiracies, but all in all, public opinion swiftly shifted towards "at least she's not the Sorcerer King," which could be said to be an improvement.

For anybody who had lived in the city since before the war, having been numbed to the concept of common sense, she was just another unreasonable individual with unfathomable power. Ultimately, even if ordinary people learned that the sun would not rise the next day, there was nothing for them to do about it. They had already committed to remaining in the city when it was first conquered, and would not so easily abandon their livelihood due to the arrival of an ancient vampire or two.

The Sorcerous Kingdom did not reach the same conclusion, and neither would the many foreign nations observing them. When contrasted against Ainz, the Guardians, or even ordinary high-ranking servants, her combat ability would be ranked somewhere between 'mediocre' and 'pathetic'. Admittedly, this was an underestimation which did not take into account her talent and experience, but it was not fundamentally wrong. Foreign entities might be cautious or fearful, but those who had witnessed the Sorcerer King's power recognized that her individual power was of relatively little worth.

Of greater interest were her centuries of knowledge of and experience in performing research about magic. Being one of only two known (former) humans who had attained the status of fifth-tier arcane magic casters through her own effort, her expertise was priceless. Yet, this too was hardly of note to Nazarick, which contained dozens of subordinates capable of using magic of the tenth tier.

In truth, Ainz did have some interest in her personal magic, as the idea of creating magic of his own appealed to him greatly. Practically speaking, there were numerous issues with trying to get her help, foremost among which was her straightforward hostility towards himself, ironically caused by the conflict between himself (Ainz) and himself (Momon). Although they had spoken amicably once before and would not become enemies, there was also no way to access her insight without breaking character.

Per Demiurge's advice, he had abandoned actively trying to recruit her. Using Shalltear's ability as a superior vampire to dominate her was one option, but doing so would needlessly make more enemies if discovered. She had some worth, but the cost of acquisition would outweigh the benefits. Besides, they had already gained Fluder Paradyne, who was utterly loyal and likely had much of the same knowledge that she would.

Last but not least, there was the value of her fame and unique nature. Unlike anybody associated with the Sorcerous Kingdom, who could be said to have ulterior motives behind doing so, she already had an established history of being a non-human who had taken the side of humanity. The symbolic nature of this could not be understated.

Simply by existing, even if she herself did not support their cause, Keeno became the perfect counterargument against human-supremacist nations like the Theocracy and Holy Kingdom, who lost their position of being the sole defenders of mankind against the mindless and barbaric demihumans. Naturally, Albedo and Demiurge's joint proposal, the _Plan for World Domination (revised)_ took advantage of this extensively.

The standing recommendation from the higher-ups was to avoid unnecessary contact, lest they cause additional friction. Precisely because it was a _recommendation_ and not an order, one Tanya Degurechaff had absolutely no issue with disregarding it.

"You… were supposed to be the strongest adventurer in the Kingdom, so why is it that you are always lazing around in this city instead?" (Tanya)

She caught Keeno outside her room in the inn just as she was splitting away from Momon. After a slightly jump at the demon who had literally appeared out of invisibility behind her, she composed herself and tightened her expression, which had melted from her time with Momon.

"What, it's just you… was that supposed to be a joke? Your Sorcerer King's undead are already wiping out every monster in the countryside. There's no work to do either way, and Lakyus doesn't need my help to drink tea with the Princess." (Keeno)

Keeno gave her complaints while opening the door and walking into her room, but since she left the door open while entering instead of slamming it shut, the visit wasn't entirely unwelcome. Even without monsters around, adamantite-ranked adventurers could always find work one way or the other, not that anybody from Blue Rose was in need of money.

"Soldiers not having work is a good thing for the world. As much as I'd like to say that it's nice to have some peace and quiet for once, with my luck it probably won't last." (Tanya)

No, she already _knew_ it wouldn't last, but saying any more would violate an actual order, so this much was the limit. Whether Keeno could understand the hint would be her own responsibility, but part of her certainly hoped she would. Tanya had only heard fragments of her story from others, but her tenacious survival from such an age, alone, without the knowledge and memories that she had started with herself earned her a considerable amount of respect.

"So, I don't imagine you came here just to make jokes, what exactly did you come here to do?" (Keeno)

"Of course not, I'm properly here on business. There's a job for you." (Tanya)

"No matter how strapped we are for employment, I have no interest in whatever work the Sorcerer King would need done." (Keeno)

"The request isn't from him, it's from me, personally. There's a special sort of magic research I need done, and from what I heard, out of all humans, you're the best at this work." (Tanya)

Keeno didn't immediately answer, briefly pondering what she had been told.

"… I admit that is a specialty of mine, but don't you have your own experts for that?" (Keeno)

"Sure, if I reported what I was doing and got permission for it properly, I might be able to throw liches at the problem until it gets solved, but that approach has its own problems. Bureaucracy is fine when it works, but learning how to plan around it is even more useful." (Tanya)

"Without permission… what are you planning?" (Keeno)

Tanya shrugged in lieu of answering.

"Well, can you do it? You've been stuck at the fifth tier for over 200 years now. Can you ever reach the level of being able to stand by Momon-dono's side with just that?" (Tanya)

"What a blatant attempt at manipulation." (Keeno)

"Yes, and what of it? If the research succeeds, you should be able to reach sixth or seventh, perhaps even higher with time. Isn't that the important part here?" (Tanya)

It was the devil's whisper, plain and simple. Keeno may have centuries of life experience, but the majority had been spent in isolation, and nothing revealed her immaturity quite like bringing up Momon's name. Still, the offer wasn't a lie.

"Fine, I'll take a look if I have time. What's the project?" (Keeno)

As planned, she gave in. Tanya suppressed a smirk while walking over to the nearby table. Then, she reached into the void of her inventory to pull out a bundle of papers.

"First-tier arcane magic, [Magic Arrow]." (Tanya)

She set down the bundle, which was made up of roughly ten sheets of paper. Each was covered in intricate patterns, at times rigid and geometric, at times smooth and organic, and yet at others utterly random. From the attention to detail alone it might be worthy of being called art, if not for the lack of any recognizable meaning. While Keeno picked one sheet up to examine in more detail, Tanya continued to reach into the pocket of space and take out more bundles.

"First-tier healing magic, [Light Healing]; Second-tier healing, [Cure Light Wounds]. First-tier, [Floating Board]… [Lesser Strength], [Poison], [Blindness], [Fly], [Magic Shield]…" (Tanya)

After the first few, she gave up on the supplementary details, since Keeno was no doubt already familiar with them, so she listed just the names. She continued to stack bundles of varying sizes, each layered with their own unique patterns. Some were more orderly, others had the consistency of a toddler's crayon drawings, but each had been carefully formatted and drawn out.

"… Wait, wait, explain all this properly. What are all of these?" (Keeno)

"Hm… they're not exactly formulas, if I called them programs…" (Tanya)

She paused to glance over at Keeno, who seemed more confused by the explanation.

"… doesn't translate, huh. Well, think of them as translations of magic in their most complete form. The problem is, I can create them like this, but I can't understand what is actually being written down." (Tanya)

These bundles were the end product of Tanya's effort to meticulously transcribe the spell data recorded on her now-internal Type-95. As she had been given the ability to perfectly analyze everything in the world around her, she could copy over the spells she saw used, and with some effort, activate them herself. Regrettably, she had no way to interpret that data in any detail.

Having been an Imperial aerial mage, she had been taught how to perform routine maintenance on a computation orb, as well as how to use said orb to interact with the world by making use of the various formulas which had been perfected over the years by teams of dedicated researchers. In her brief tenure as Doctor Schugel's guinea pig, she had picked up on some of the finer technical details of magic engineering, so her knowledge on the subject should be superior to the average mage.

That being said, if asked to construct a computation orb from raw materials, her answer would be a definitive 'no'. By the same reasoning, she could make use of a formula given to her, but interpreting their meaning was beyond her. Trying to understand the meaning of these spells without so much as a textbook was too far outside her range of proficiency.

As evidenced by her inability to do anything more than recognize a few duplicated patterns even with the aid of the Type-95's computational ability. Once she had a starting point to build off of, she would be able to apply the full power of the white girl's thought acceleration and parallelization to start compressing years worth of study into only a few days.

Right now, she had been given a library of books in a language she could not read, and was told to translate them without so much as a dictionary. The hundreds of tiered spells she had learned were raw programs, yet she was no programmer. At this point, handing off the problem to somebody with a better understanding of this type of magic was the obvious answer from a human resources standpoint.

Tanya took out more bundles to continue her explanation.

"Unfortunately, there isn't much help I can offer in this regard. The only guarantee I can make is that these are indeed spells which translate into the effects of the magic listed." (Tanya)

Keeno's doubt was understandable, given the monumental task presented to her. Though Tanya didn't know how this compared to creating original magic, she was certain that no matter what their research looked like, it would look nothing like the data format presented by a computation orb. Thus, she gave up on explaining that which she didn't understand, and began to take out more bait.

"Provided you can get through those and get some understanding of these…" (Tanya)

She withdrew a bundle far taller than any before, this one containing no fewer than 100 sheets,

"… there's the fifth-tier [Teleportation]…" (Tanya)

Followed by a brick of at least 300 sheets,

"… the sixth-tier [Heal]…" (Tanya)

And ended with a stack thicker than her arm, which probably reached four digits of papers.

"… and the seventh-tier [Greater Teleportation]. These are your payment." (Tanya)

This payment which would be useless to Keeno without her first achieving results would serve as motivation as well as compensation, and from the gleam in her eyes at being given copies of magic straight out of this world's mythology, it was working exactly as intended. Producing more of them would cost her nothing but a few hours of her time, something she could already do with one hand while paying attention to something else thanks to the effects of [Parallel Minds]. If those could be used to purchase Keeno's aid, then they would be more useful than actually printing money.

Were she able to get a few of her favorite tiered magic spells optimized to the point of being at least comparable in efficiency to formulas, her utility, survivability, and combat ability would soar to transcendental levels. The only remaining issue was how well she could hide this from Nazarick, lest they suspect her of treachery.

* * *

"You don't trust her? Even though she's your creation?" (Albedo)

Albedo tilted her head in response to Demiurge's explanation, questioning the meaning behind his denial.

"Trust? No, of course not. While I suspected that this might be the case ever since the pact failed to fully control her, I had expected at least partial success. Her resisting without a mental change was, I admit, a consequence of my miscalculation." (Demiurge)

Though admitting his own mistakes, Demiurge did not seem particularly bothered by the results. To an outsider his expressions would be difficult to read, especially if they couldn't tell the difference between which of his emotions were controlled and which were genuine, but Albedo could mostly understand him. From his tone and choice of words, this was not the most expected outcome, but it was not outside his range of predictions. Perhaps this was even something he considered to be a beneficial miscalculation, such as when Ainz's actions had improved on his plans in the Holy Kingdom.

"Moreover, nobody aside from the flawless Supreme Beings themselves could ever be trustworthy, including ourselves. The day you would say that I am beyond doubt is the same day that I report you for sedition, and I would expect you to do the same." (Demiurge)

"Of course. If you ever stand against Ainz-sama, I would destroy you with all my power. Despite this, why do you continue to support her when you cannot control her?" (Albedo)

"My interest is to see the greatest possible benefit to Ainz-sama and Nazarick. From what I can see, allowing Tanya Degurechaff a considerable degree of freedom would both allow her to grow, while instilling loyalty in the form of mutual benefits. It is precisely because I do not believe that I can control her that I suggest that we should not do so." (Demiurge)

"I do not understand what you are suggesting. You objected so vehemently to allowing Sebas to keep his pet, yet you allow yours to run around without a leash." (Albedo)

"Really? I thought you of all people would understand the importance of balancing freedom with consequence when raising children." (Demiurge)

"You don't actually believe that to be necessary, do you?" (Albedo)

At Demiurge's last comment, Albedo's voice turned hostile.

"There's no need to take my joke so seriously. When I brought the matter to Ainz-sama, he told me that it would be fine even if she continues acting like a human instead of using our standards for loyalty. If it's not too much, we can even overlook a little treachery." (Demiurge)

"You think she will betray us?" (Albedo)

For the first time, he hesitated before answering.

"No… no, I don't. Though I cannot consider her a full demon, she is a markedly rational individual, as far as humans go. She will never consider us her masters, but she does recognize Nazarick as her employer. Provided we continue to provide the best terms for her employment, she will not turn against us." (Demiurge)

"That is not an acceptable sentiment for a servant of Nazarick to hold." (Albedo)

"This too is Ainz-sama's will. It was originally his proposal that we recruit her under terms of employment, not enslavement, and based on my interactions with her up until to that point, I accepted that as the best approach. I believe that the results speak for themselves." (Demiurge)

Albedo did not let up on her intimidation towards Demiurge, who in turn did refused to budge on his argument. Neither spoke while each pressured the other with their specialty.

"Demiurge. When Shalltear was controlled and Ainz-sama went out to fight her, do you recall the terms we exchanged?" (Albedo)

"… I do." (Demiurge)

"Even if it was personally approved by Ainz-sama, I cannot approve of your allowing such a dangerous individual loose within Nazarick." (Albedo)

"Understood. In the event that Tanya Degurechaff's actions go beyond my predictions and become detrimental to Nazarick, I will assume full responsibility." (Demiurge)

With a sigh, Demiurge gave in to Albedo's demands. The temperature in the room, which had frozen from the clash of the two auras, gradually began to return to normal. Her angry glare vanished like it had been a lie, and instantly reverted to her neutral smile.

"Very good. Then, I will not criticize your judgment any further. Is that girl really worth this much devotion on your part?" (Albedo)

"It's a shame that she rejected the ritual, else I could have made her into a full devil, but she had already exhibited the ability to resist control spells once before. She's perhaps a half-demon, or something entirely new, even I can't tell for certain, it's natural that I'd be interested. The best way I can describe her would be, if I were to put it into so few words, a human in the skin of a demon." (Demiurge)

* * *

A/N: Hello, this is nullmana. First, thank you for taking the time to read _Archdevil's Contractor_. This story came about on a whim after watching _Isekai Quartet_, since there were so many great possibilities for character interactions and serious developments which inevitably wouldn't be possible in a series of comedy shorts… this got way more attention than expected.

Although I can't make any guarantees due to real life, I'll try to keep up monthly releases of at least 10k words through this second volume, though that is contingent on having ideas for what to actually write.

I noticed that FanFiction crops out a considerable amount of the formatting that I had in the documents, I went back to fix them but it might well have messed something else up.

If you have some time, please take a few minutes to fill out a opinion short survey about the story: (Sorry, FF breaks links, remove the space before .gle): [forms .gle/1YvPLLraMsL43vYn6]


	10. Volume 2, Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Part 1**

Nine individuals sat waiting around a massive black table, which itself was engraved with the guild's emblem covering the entire surface of the table. The round table of the 9th floor used as a meeting space by the 41 members of Ainz Ooal Gown still seated the guildmaster himself, but the other seats were instead occupied by the Floor Guardians rather than their creators.

The 41 large, intricately decorated chairs surrounding the table appeared no less expensive than the table. Putting them all together, unearthly materials and magnificent craftsmanship which went into the set probably cost at least as much as a large city. When including the enchantments which had been applied to the chairs, table, and room itself, the price would skyrocket into a truly ludicrous amount.

Since the chairs were required to seat humanoid undead, formless oozes, and massive abominations, they would naturally require the ability to form themselves around whoever is sitting on them, letting heteromorphic characters of any shape and size face each other with an even eyeline. No matter who sat around the great round table, they would face each other as equals.

Convincing the Guardians to sit at this table with him took Ainz almost three hours. Only in the end was he able to settle it by arguing that this was a meeting, and it was important for them to present their reports and ideas as if they were equals, without mincing words.

Although the Floor Guardians (plus Albedo, Pandora's Actor, and Sebas, minus Gargantua) were seated as equals, the same position was not given to everybody in the room. Included in the two dozen or so other individuals gathered in front of the walls were all seven members of the Pleiades with Aureole, Nigredo, and Tanya, each of whom stood at attention without a word. At last, Ainz himself entered the room, sitting at his chair with a flourish of his robe.

As he entered the room, each Guardian who had been seated promptly stood up and bowed before him, while everybody else in the room simultaneously kneeled towards the Supreme Being with perfect harmony, as if rehearsed prior (it had been, unknown to Ainz), waiting for him to sit and give him next order.

"Raise your heads, and let this meeting commence. Well done following my command and assembling here for this meeting today. Before we proceed to the main point, we will go around the table once. Guardians, if you have any issues to report with which you require assistance, do so now. Then, Albedo?" (Ainz)

Ainz turned to his right, where Albedo was seated closest to him, with two seats between so as to space everybody out.

"The integration of both the Baharuth Empire and Re-Estize Kingdom have been proceeding ahead of schedule. The initial attempts by the Empire to support a coalition against us was promptly discarded, whereas public opposition for us in the Kingdom is gradually fading. The leaders of both nations have fully abandoned any notion of rebellion, and are supporting us while building up their own territories within the autonomy we have permitted them. Likewise, there are no domestic issues to report at this time." (Albedo)

Ainz nodded sagely, then turned to the Guardian sitting next in the rotation.

"Shalltear." (Ainz)

"I have no issue to report. There have been no problems with maintaining our [Gate] network, nor any problems guarding against intruders to the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick." (Shalltear)

He continued calling on those seated the around the table in order, with each of his subordinates reporting their progress. Some were for tasks Ainz had given out himself, others had been assigned by Albedo to assist with others' objectives. The single common point was that each of them announced success, with only one concerning report about suspicious activity in the Agrand Republic capital, where each of the various powerful counselors were gathering in one place.

Cocytus announced that every demihuman race around the great lake had been either assimilated or exterminated, depending on their disposition. In his words, they were prepared and anxious for an offensive military campaign.

Aura explained their expedition into the distant great forest of the elves, where she was observing the ongoing war between the Slane Theocracy and the Elf Kingdom. Together with Mare, they had established a network where the plants and animals of the forest themselves would spy on all activity in the entire forest.

Demiurge gave a brief summary about their recent espionage activities in the various countries, a joint operation with the information gathering specialist Nigredo to use divination magic for surveying every unprotected strategic location, while working doppelganger operatives into those which were too strongly shielded.

Most of the information being presented was just a summary of the documents which had already been delivered to Ainz some time ago, but it was still useful to listen to again. This way, he could hear what they considered to be important enough to report to everybody else, without having to ask them about it explicitly. Seeing them earnestly present their accomplishments once again made him deeply thankful that his companions had left behind such capable NPCs for him.

Ainz recalled his conversation with Tanya where they had shared stories about their second lives. On one such day, she had wholeheartedly complemented his Guardians for being such great subordinates, while herself rambling on about how much effort she had to put into developing her own soldiers into capable elites. For all her harsh words directed towards them, he could tell how important they were to her.

Certainly, his own boss back in the day would never hesitate before giving him consecutive 16-hour workdays to cover up his own mistakes, eating away at his health and sanity. Since they were quite open about their real lives compared to other guilds, they would often complain about their jobs in their off time. If he had a particularly bad day, the other guildmates would always be there to listen and console him.

They really were wonderful companions, without whom he might not have even survived this long in that hellish black company of his. If it was for the guild he had built together with them, and for the NPCs they had left behind, he would happily take on the entire world.

Ainz thought about those memories while listening to each Guardian's report. He felt himself smiling slightly, though it didn't actually show on his skeletal face. At the same time, it reminded him of his own insufficiency. Since they were working so hard to satisfy him, what excuse did he have to not put everything he had towards becoming an ideal ruler for them? In his mind, he vowed to redouble his studies on leadership.

Once Sebas finished speaking, the round table segment was over. Everybody seated again turned back to face Ainz, who gave a single nod.

"Excellent work. As expected, your work is exceptional. Continue to serve Nazarick with such devotion in the future." (Ainz)

All of the Guardians beamed at their master's praise, foremost among them being Albedo.

"We are undeserving of your kind words, Ainz-sama! To serve you is our duty, and to be allowed to do so gives us boundless joy!" (Albedo)

Ainz faced Albedo to give her another nod. They had repeated this exchange countless times before, but he believed that giving out praise in response to good work was important. Even an ordinary person would gain management experience when his life depended on it, as he had over the year and a half since the end of YGGDRASIL.

More importantly, gaining some confidence in his position let him better apply his decade of time playing the game into practical experience. Although leading a guild was not particularly similar to running a country, some of the skills he gained were transferrable, as was his own real-life work, though for a different reason. If he learned anything from that job, it was only that an incompetent boss should stay out of matters he doesn't understand.

"The Great Tomb of Nazarick was created with all of you as part of it, and it could not function nearly so smoothly without every one of you. With that being said, our purpose for meeting here is not for one of Nazarick's original residents, but to listen to one who joined later. Demiurge?" (Ainz)

"Yes. For those who may have forgotten, approximately three months ago the former Imperial Major Tanya von Degurechaff was recruited from another world into our ranks to serve as a military advisor and leader. During this time, she has been collecting information about the Sorcerous Kingdom's current military, as well as the viability of developing an army which does not rely on the Floor Guardians to function. Then, please begin." (Demiurge)

After giving that introduction, Demiurge sat back down to watch Tanya, who approached the round table, stopping at the edge immediately opposite to Ainz, where an empty space had already been prepared for this purpose.

"Thank you very much, Demiurge-sama. With Ainz-sama's permission, I will then begin my presentation." (Tanya)

Giving a standard salute in Ainz's direction, she paused to take a deep breath, then exhaled and spoke the first line.

"Based on my analysis of the present state of the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick, I believe it to be impossible for us to accomplish the proposed military goals against the nation of the Slane Theocracy." (Tanya)

The same instant she finished that sentence, the room exploded.

Sebas furrowed his brow, but did not otherwise show his anger; Demiurge's eyebrow twitched, though was not visibly hostile; Victim's reaction could not be read; Ainz himself looked more disappointed than angry at the statement. Excluding them, nobody seated at the table made any effort to hide their intention to kill the traitor who dared to slander the glorious name of Nazarick.

If a casual application of Sebas's bloodlust could kill a human with above-average strength by shock alone, then what effects would serious murderous intent from half a dozen such individuals in a closed room have?

The Pleiades standing by at the side were pressed against the wall. If not for the commanding presence of Aureole Omega buffing them, those without racial resistances against mental effects might even have been hit by status effects.

The invisible Eight Edge Assassins on the ceiling could be heard clattering around in a panic, uncertain whether to support the will of the majority or get themselves to safety first.

Naturally, when the collateral damage was so powerful, the target of this aggression would experience a far worse outcome. All demon races had a strong resistance to mental effects of any form, but there was only so much it could do in front of such a level difference.

Tanya was driven to her knees, crushed into the ground as if by an invisible giant's hand, leaving her unable to move and barely capable of breathing.

"That's enough! Do not make me repeat the reason we are here." (Ainz)

Relief came from Ainz, who restored the atmosphere in the room with a single statement. He glanced over at Tanya, who was catching her breath and slowly getting up off the floor. They apologized collectively, while he thought about where their excessive loyalty came from.

Meanwhile, Tanya was struggling to get back to her feet, all while questioning the life choices that got her here. She was planning on establishing the tone of the presentation by starting with that kind of summary, thereby getting their attention, though that splendidly backfired. Evidently, she had severely underestimated their standards for what qualified as an insult towards Ainz.

"Do you mean to suggest that we would be defeated?" (Demiurge)

Before she could resume, Demiurge interrupted her for clarification. Most likely he already had a guess at what she was trying to imply, but asked so she would explain for the other Guardians.

"No, that is not the case. I believe that victory would be trivial using the full force available, however doing so would allow the targets to escape. As both the Empire and the Kingdom have been disqualified, by process of elimination, we should proceed under the assumption that the Slane Theocracy are in possession of the World-Class Item capable of mind control." (Tanya)

"Yes, we believe that to be likely." (Demiurge)

"Then, if they are invaded with overwhelming force, they are certain to take the most valuable item and flee. Publicly it would be a victory, but the greatest threat and most valuable treasure would be lost to us. This is not a result which I consider success. We must first bait them with a war which appears winnable, yet there is no force within Nazarick which is suited for that purpose. Hence, I conclude that it is currently impossible to achieve our objective." (Tanya)

"From what Fluder told us, the hundreds of Death Knights and Soul Eaters which I permanently summoned are considered an army capable of wiping out small countries individually. Would they not make for an appropriate threat?" (Ainz)

This interpretation was indeed correct, as history had shown. Forces capable of standing up against Soul Eaters were practically nonexistent, and even Death Knights were next to invincible against anybody weaker than adamantite-ranked adventurers.

The Slane Theocracy was well known as a country which enlisted and trained potential talents, so they should have a considerable pool of elites like the Sunlight Scripture, which Ainz had wiped out previously. If they were all at that level, a dozen Soul Eaters and Death Knights might indeed make for a fairly balanced war.

"Unfortunately, that may not be the case. We have already confirmed that the Theocracy was spying on your attack against the Kingdom. Despite having the information about the existence of that army, they have maintained their standoffish attitude against us. While those undead would indeed make an excellent core for an army, I expect the Slane Theocracy is hiding a force capable of defeating them, those they call Heroes and God-kin." (Tanya)

With the exception of the Republic and Theocracy, every civilized country in the surrounding area had already sent diplomats bearing tribute. Even the formerly hostile Holy Kingdom came with what gifts they could spare. The Republic, being under the protection of the Platinum Dragon Lord – often called the strongest being in the world – would be confident of their safety, but the Theocracy had no such savior, at least not publicly.

"The precise extent of strength they are hiding is impossible to guess, but since they have not attacked outright, it should be less than the full power exhibited by Ainz-sama during that massacre." (Tanya)

Tanya paused to wait for a response, looking around the table once. Several of the Guardians appeared to be in thought, while both Demiurge and Albedo only confidently waited for Ainz's answer.

"Hm… Demiurge, what do you make of this?" (Ainz)

"The assumptions are somewhat speculative, but solid overall. As the Theocracy's headquarters are considerably well secured against observation, they most likely have high-level magic items protecting against divination, perhaps items originating from YGGDRASIL. I am willing to accept the reasoning that they have a considerably force hidden away." (Demiurge)

"Albedo?" (Ainz)

"I am in agreement. When we examined the location where Shalltear was abandoned after being controlled, damage on the ground suggested that a battle took place before the World-Class Item was used, but Shalltear was unable to decisively win. For the sake of caution, we should assume that they possess an elite force which is collectively able to match a single Floor Guardian in battle. However, as they chose to use the item but were unable to fully control her, Shalltear should have been capable of defeating them if not for the item." (Albedo)

"Then we are in agreement. Very well, proceed under these assumptions." (Ainz)

"Understood. Then, I propose that we should prepare a single individual to lead the army and serve as bait for the mind control, who is made to appear strong, but not invincible. That individual must therefore not reveal their strength until the trap is sprung, and lead the army while maintaining a balance of close victories. If we were to also allow them to see that Ainz-sama himself is not in the field, this should draw them out… I believe the most suitable for this task to either be Cocytus-sama, or perhaps Albedo-sama." (Tanya)

Cocytus breathed out a gust of frigid air, having largely expected the recommendation. On the other hand, Albedo appeared to be genuinely surprised at being nominated.

"Both suggestions are rejected. As of yet, we would prefer not to reveal Cocytus needlessly. Regardless of the merit of having myself perform this role, I am far too occupied with internal matters to sit around as bait." (Albedo)

Tanya hadn't expected such an outright denial, but did not allow her expression to shift. Unfreezing a moment later, she again began to argue for her suggestion.

"However, as somebody who has already been openly associated with Nazarick, Albedo-sama would be most suitable. Furthermore, her position as Guardian Overseer would encourage-" (Tanya)

"Would those criteria not apply to yourself as well?" (Demiurge)

Demiurge didn't bother to let her finish before pointing out the obvious. In reality, Tanya had been hoping for the possibility that it would go unmentioned in favor of one of her suggestions, as she didn't really expect them to not notice. Regrettably, she would receive no such mercy, though she couldn't recognize whether his action was intended to be pragmatic or malicious.

"You have already been publicly active, so a certain degree of ability has already been revealed. Since those abilities have changed since they were last shown off, it should serve to throw off the enemy's predictions, while also luring them in with a feigned weakness. Above all, this requires the sort of command experience of which you possess more than anybody here. Why do you not volunteer yourself?" (Demiurge)

He explained this with the mocking smile of a predator, or rather it felt more like the demon ways playing with his food. Tanya couldn't guess just how much of her speech he had predicted, but he was making it perfectly clear that her tricks had already been seen through. She still had a few arguments saved up about problems in the chain of command, or not being suitable to represent Nazarick without a formal status, but gave up on playing those cards. At this point, any further excuses would be futile, if not detrimental.

"I cannot refute your logic, Demiurge-sama. Then, with Ainz-sama's approval, this mission would be assigned to me…" (Tanya)

She sent Ainz a pleading glance while reluctantly delivering a jagged approval, but he had already saved her once that day, and neither did he have any reason to refute Demiurge's explanation. He nodded, confirming their decision.

"With that being decided, I suggest that you perform the experiments to support your further theories before presenting them. You should have no issue assembling a force which matches your desired composition, but ask for assistance if required. Cocytus, you mentioned the lizardmen were ready to fight? Why don't you take some of them along?" (Demiurge)

"I. Do. Not. Mind, But. Please. Try. To. Bring. Them. Back. In. One. Piece." (Cocytus)

"Then, we'll send a couple hundred of them your way. Feel free to call up our loyal allies for soldiers if you wish, but do keep Nazarick's reputation in mind as you do so. Ah, and do try not to play around too much with the outsiders, else somebody might misunderstand your intentions." (Demiurge)

Demiurge finished his speech without the slightest shift to his gentle smile.

Thus, the meeting came to an end.

* * *

**Part 2**

As soon as she was released, Tanya retreated back to her room. Not the room on Demiurge's floor which she had officially been assigned, but rather the office in E-Rantel's castle which she had commandeered. It was much further out of the way, and precisely because of that she could stay without being disturbed.

For the most part, Nazarick's native residents would, by their very nature, prefer to stay within the Great Tomb, unless they were required to do otherwise for their work. Of course, exceptions would be made if they were traveling with Ainz, but generally speaking this was an accurate guess.

If it was here, she could complain in peace. Tanya walked through the door, then immediately shut it behind herself. After establishing several anti-divination spells around her person, confirming the location of every mana signature – living or dead – within 500 meters of herself, and monitoring the surrounding area for incoming teleportation, only then did she let herself relax.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…" (Tanya)

She let out a deep sigh. Contrary to expectations, they were already more than happy to leave the entire matter to her without so much as regulation or oversight. Were she dealing with Imperial High Command, she would have considered this a sign of their trust in her ability, but here it would simply be naive. As she had not properly accounted for that difference, her plan to evade responsibility had been derailed.

_No, if I kept trying to get out of __work at this point, it'd just be contract fraud. They held up their end of the deal, what with taking out Being X, so I ought to do the same. The job description didn't explicitly mention leading an army, but I suppose it's close enough that I can't really argue about it._

Even more surprising was their accepting her plan just as she had proposed it, aside from her choice of commanding officer. Yet, they said nothing and left her in total control. She had no doubt that they were capable of thinking up better plans, they had done so many times before in the records she had gotten access to. To begin with, she had gotten approval without so much as explaining any more than a vague outline of her goals.

_Are they letting me direct this attack to test me? Is that why they didn't even set a schedule for me, they want to take initiative as a show of loyalty?_

Certainly, if she took the hundreds of 'legendary' undead and ended up losing them, they could be resummoned within a month even if they were lost. At present, Ainz had stopped summoning them only because they were running out of space to keep them. Even the most generous possible estimate for her to organize an army and conduct an invasion would take far longer than that. Without factoring in delays due to actual combat and logistic problems, by the time she returned he could make a replacement army twice the size of what had been shown off previously.

She would probably be given most of the army Ainz had brought out in Katze Plains, as not bringing the forces which were already revealed would only rouse suspicion. She could ask for any number of POP undead for cannon fodder, as they would respawn at no cost. She would be provided a sizeable army by this world's standards, but not much more. Any other forces she wanted would have to be provisioned by her own effort, unless she could justify them as necessary to the army experiment.

As an officer, Tanya was fascinated with the idea of using undead armies. Though she had never personally had to deal with spending a winter in the Federation and all the supply nightmares that accompanied such an environment, she had heard enough horror stories from the Railroad Division to make an educated guess. When the snow and mud stopped rations and winter clothing from reaching the front, any army, no matter how well-equipped and trained would freeze and starve all the same.

On the other hand, undead would never need to eat or drink, would never suffer from reduced morale, and required no training to replace once destroyed. In many ways, they were ideal soldiers, but had countless drawbacks.

Foremost, their utter lack of adaptability in the face of unexpected situations. They would follow their orders to the letter, and in the absence of commanders on the field, this was a recipe for disaster. An undead army sent to fight against ground forces would be worthless against attacks from the sky. Let alone having no way to counterattack, they would not even bother to take cover or otherwise evade attacks. If Tanya had enough free time, she could destroy hundreds of Death Knights single-handedly simply by flying above them and dropping large rocks on them.

This flaw could be mitigated to some extent by assigning POP-spawned Elder Liches as squad commanders, which had enough intelligence to make them at least passable commanders. Unfortunately, expecting any more would be a fool's errand. Perhaps they could be taught when to fight and when to retreat, but creative thinking on the spot was beyond them.

Some of the higher-level variants of Elder Liches could perform construction management, urban planning, research, or other intellectual work, but they were limited in quantity. Since those were too high in level to naturally spawn, the only ones in Nazarick were those which had been purchased for it, such as those in the Grand Library. Naturally, those would not be made available to her.

Still, every single one of the Soul Eaters was comparable in combat power to a modern main battle tank, if not several. When their ability to function in any environment without any need for maintenance or risk of malfunctions was taken into account, they made for an incredibly potent unit. Much as a tank commander might salivate at the chance to deploy a full battalion's worth of tanks, impractical as that may be, she too could enjoy making use of such monsters.

_As much as I hate war, it does get much easier when you pick the right enemy. They may not be __free-market hating communists, but theocrats are a close second. Were they the modern type who know when to stay out of government I could still leave them be, but these are the worst sort of extremists. __Wiping them out would be doing the world a favor._

Tanya nodded at her own mental justification. The Slane Theocracy was fanatically dedicated to its mantra of protecting the survival of humanity, to the detriment of any other races. This was not just hollow preaching, but true dedication to that cause.

On the surface, they provided military aid to the Draconic Kingdoms when they were attacked by the demihumans in the east, trained soldiers from the Holy Kingdom in their defense against invading monsters, and mediated conflicts between human nations in the interest of mutual survival.

However, behind that pristine front, they had their fair share of shadows. Attacks against demihumans were not defensive as they claimed, and they would often make preemptive strikes targeting potential threats. The primary mission assigned to Nigun's Sunlight Scripture was exactly this, hunting down traces of demihuman activity, following it to its source, and tearing it out by its roots. Isolated and peaceful villages of intelligent demihumans were no exception, and would be wiped out in the interest of safety.

The Theocracy would provide a degree of training to foreign soldiers, but most of their own training techniques remained strictly confidential. They leveraged control over temples within their country to maintain an extremely detailed register of citizens, which included their Talents as identified with magic. Of those, individuals with useful abilities would be called for service and conscripted. The training given to those foreign soldiers was only that which they would give to their own rank-and-file soldiers, those determined to have no potential.

Even their efforts to limit the scale of wars between human countries were largely for the sake of raising the total human population to be as large as possible. They would limit conflicts as they claimed, but when one was deemed incapable as the Re-Estize Kingdom had been, they would be more than happy to let the Empire invade and annex them.

Indeed, everything they did was in the interest of humanity as a whole. Humanity as a race was weak compared to the monsters around them, so they had to band together against all external threats. In their ideal world, all other species would be eliminated, leaving only humans to populate the entire continent.

"Just what do you take demihumans to be? They're a perfectly good source of human capital… is your wastefulness intended to be an insult to HR? Imperial recruiters would have you shot for squandering that much manpower." (Tanya)

She hated them. She well and truly despised them. She had thought that only communists could do something as ridiculous as discarding talent for purely political reasons, but evidently she was wrong. While thinking about such things, Tanya continued talking to herself in her room.

"I take back what I said, these theocrats are just as bad as the commies. Somebody really needs to teach them the principles of trade… even if the world changes, in the end it comes down to me to spread the joys of proper economics… what a role to have. Is this what it feels like to fight a war you actually believe in?" (Tanya)

Tanya furrowed her eyebrows once she finished speaking

_Have I always been this belligerent? Even back in the Empire, there were times when I wanted to proactively attack, but those were always working towards a specific objective. For me to call for starting a war, even if the suggestion comes from a superior… have I changed more than I thought over these long years?_

People would change from time in the military. This was just as true no matter the age, no matter the world. It would be more unusual for somebody not to change in any profession which expected you to follow orders which may result in killing other people, or dying yourself. Of course, Tanya's half decade in the Imperial Army was no exception to this rule.

In her case however, there was still her transformation into a demon to consider. The body would change, as would the brain. As this process was naturally far less researched than military psychology, it was impossible for her to guess at what sort of mental changes could be attributed to this, instead of her time in the trenches.

She had lived once and developed for decades as an adult male, then suddenly been made female and spent a decade developing again. After 13 years of that, she had once again had her entire body reconstructed into something no longer human, only built to resemble her appearance. Though her memories were intact, she would inevitably drift further and further from who she originally was.

Like a human Ship of Theseus, it was difficult to say whether she still was the same person she had started as. To the person in question, it was more than just philosophy, but a matter of personal identity. Should she resist in an effort to return to her old self, or should she accept the shift, even if it turns her into a more violent and ruthless person, better adapted to these brutal worlds, but incompatible with modern life. Perhaps there was a middle ground to be found, though the end result might simply leave her unable to live in either environment.

The first time around, she had lived a peaceful life in Japan, isolated from violence of any sort. In her second life, she had personally killed well over a hundred enemy mages, plus many more infantrymen on the ground, all while dreaming of a peaceful life. Perhaps by then she had already moved past what somebody who had grown up in the 21st century would consider the actions of a human being. Indeed, it was not something a sane member of modern society could – or should – be able to do. To survive, she had to change, but turning back was easier said than done.

Now, her direct superiors were no longer demonic strategists, but literal demons. If back then she had been ordered to take part in burning the city of Arene to the ground, she might now receive orders to wipe out armies and purge entire cities. And, if the objective lined up with her own goals, she would do just that.

Without a doubt, she would be hated by a great many people. Unlike Demiurge – who would be planning their actions behind the scenes – she would be taking action publicly. Ten years from now, she might be the second most hated individual on the entire continent, behind only Ainz himself.

_Although, if all goes well, __we'll win the wars, and information control can come after that. "History is written by the victors," as they say, __and I for one am not planning on losing. __If, if we can really succeed at this, once this passes out of living memory and into the textbooks, it may really be possible to establish a stable, unified government over the entire continent. Even now it feels childish to be seriously considering it, but these people may actually be able to conquer the world. I__mpractical __as it may seem, that is one way to __finally __see peace._

It was truly a ridiculous plan, one which no living king would ever consider. Grudges might live for generations, and it was simply impossible for any mortal emperor to outlive all opposition to their conquest. Perhaps he could leave it to his sons, but it was only a matter of time until one of the successors would end up being some incompetent, or one generation has two capable and ambitious sons, or perhaps an advisor who decides to dethrone the young emperor in his care, fracturing the realm. Then, everything comes to an end in an instant. History recorded no small number of empires which met their end not at the hands of invading enemies, but to succession.

Meanwhile, Ainz Ooal Gown would see none of these outcomes. Nearly everybody involved was immortal or close to it, and each of them had perfect health and enough personal strength to make assassination impossible. Their loyalty was unshakeable, their personal ambitions always secondary to the goals of the organization as a whole.

The king had his flaws, but his own awareness of that weakness made him practice and study, as well as to defer to his more capable subordinates. He was not perfect, but precisely because of that, he would not become overconfident in thinking he can do anything, nor think himself invincible only to fall for some obvious trap due to his hubris. In Tanya's mind, all things considered, Ainz wasn't a bad fit for the role. He himself had admitted that the whole 'world conquest' plan came about when his passing joke was taken seriously, but surprisingly, she couldn't call it unattainable.

With the careful application of overwhelming violence, they might be able to conquer the entire continent within a decade or two. With enough careful manipulation of information, given a century or so, they could rewrite the past to record that they had always been in power. If it were then, Tanya might actually be able to retire in peace without living in fear of getting killed in her sleep by some fanatic.

She was surprisingly comfortable with the idea of living forever, in part because it hadn't really sunk in yet. Having once known the effects of aging, she was fine with not doing so again. Although she wasn't interested in re-experiencing youth – nor had the chance to do so at an impoverished orphanage – she was more than happy to have one less thing to worry about. Spending a few more decades might change her mindset, but for the time being, she had more pressing issues than complaining about immortality.

Having finished with her internal complaining, Tanya sat down to start reading through records. Or at least, she intended to.

Without warning, she withdrew her rifle from the pocket space, crouching down to take aim in the direction of the door. The action was reflexive, a conditioned response to an unknown mana source appearing, possibly indicative of an ambush by hostile mages.

Though, in this case it was not a mana signature she detected, but the spatial ripples formed by incoming teleportation. As the air began to shimmer with a pale blue light, she was already preparing a close-range optical formula, her finger hovering over the rifle's lightweight trigger.

But, she carefully eased away from the trigger. With a sigh, she stood back up while stowing the weapon, directing her annoyance towards the surprised figure which appeared between her and the door.

"Ainz, to appear in front of a mage without warning, are you asking to get shot?" (Tanya)

She was still actively monitoring the surrounding area, so there was no chance that anybody else was within earshot. Thus, there was no need for tedious formalities.

"Sorry about that, Albedo would make me bring guards along if she knew I went out, so I didn't want to be seen in the castle. I tried to send you a [Message], but it wouldn't go through." (Ainz)

"Ah… that aside, did you need something?" (Tanya)

Tanya realized that she had been too zealous in blocking out divination magic, which had included blocking incoming communication. Unlike physical obstructions like metal plates in the wall, magical defenses were simple to customize. It wasn't as though she couldn't selectively allow those through, she simply hadn't thought to do so. In other words, the situation was almost entirely her fault.

"I'd like to hear what you're planning on doing with this army you've been talking about. The organization, the problems, all that. From the way Demiurge is talking about it, he already knows all about it, and it's getting hard to follow along." (Ainz)

"Although I don't mind explaining, did you read the proposal I submitted to Demiurge? The framework of the plan should be written in there." (Tanya)

"Well, I read the summary, but as for reading the actual report, no, I gave up two pages in, sorry." (Ainz)

The report she was referring to was a formal proposal for researching the integration of undead, heteromorphic, demihuman, human, and monster forces into a practical, unified army. In a manner similar to combined arms warfare, she argued that although including different species would greatly increase the logistical burden the army would have compared to a purely undead army, the resulting force would be far more effective and versatile.

Unlike the ad hoc units she had been researching back in the Empire, this was a proposal for a non-uniform standing army. On the surface the two proposals looked quite similar, but in truth this was far closer to contemporary doctrine, though the application was obviously different.

"To put it simply, I intend to use various species to mimic either modern or World War-era army composition. In a defensive battle, I would deploy defensive undead like the Death Knights to form a line, behind whom Liches and human magic casters would be entrenched in relative safety, taking the role of light artillery to actually destroy the enemy. Even if they try to close the distance, disposable undead would exhaust them, the wall of Death Knights would stop them, all while continuously taking fire from both magic casters and a line infantry of crossbowmen to bring out the hell of trench warfare even without firearms." (Tanya)

"Shouldn't you employ more undead than just a line of Death Knights? I would expect a bigger part of the core army to be undead than that. The Soul Eaters are much higher level, not to mention the countless other types of mid-tier undead which I can make at no cost." (Ainz)

"From what I understand, their attacks are large-scale area-of-effect blasts centered around themselves, right? Putting them in the middle of most formations would just cause friendly fire. That being said, they're great for breaking through enemy lines and causing confusion. On the surface, you can think of them as medium tanks, especially if you harden them against magic by matching them up with magic-resistant undead like Skeletal Dragons." (Tanya)

"Why don't you use them as cavalry instead? Any rider undead can use them as a mount without penalty." (Ainz)

Soul Eaters looked like horses, and indeed they could be used as workhorses. On the streets of E-Rantel, one would regularly spot them pulling huge overburdened carriages without breaking a sweat.

"Although you weren't wrong to deploy them as cavalry for intimidation, I believe that would be counterproductive. The advantages cavalry offers are the mobility to strike at undefended flanks, and the shock of a charge with the full weight of the horse behind it. That being said, when the mount alone is already able to follow orders, there isn't much to gain unless the riders are considerably more powerful than the Soul Eaters themselves. If not, their own attacks will kill the rider well before they can get into range." (Tanya)

"I see. Certainly, now that friendly fire isn't restricted, some monsters which would be mounts in YGGDRASIL are no longer usable. So you pair those two together since they won't damage each other with misfires, then control them to force the enemy into disadvantageous fights. Against warriors who could defeat the lower-level Skeletal Dragons, you bring the Soul Eaters forward, while the Skeletal Dragons act as walls against long-range magic attacks." (Ainz)

Tanya nodded at Ainz's analysis. Though his logic was built on the monsters' roles in the game rather than this world, his answer was more or less correct.

"As for the other undead you mentioned, the only ones I'm currently planning on using would be Liches as squad commanders. I did have some ideas for how to make use of others, such as making Ether Spirits into artillery spotters and Bone Constructors to build makeshift catapults for said artillery cover, but we should keep it simple for now." (Tanya)

Ether Spirits were purely magical beings which could freely turn invisible. In addition, they had the special ability to planeshift, becoming able to travel long distances while remaining nearly imperceptible by moving outside the physical world. Unfortunately, as they were not corporeal undead, there was no way to use a corpse to permanently summon them, so they would have to be created on-site and discarded later, greatly limiting their usability.

On the other hand, Bone Constructors were closer to golems than conventional undead, and could be animated from any sort of bones, with the quality of the material determining the level of the created Bone Constructor. As monsters in YGGDRASIL they would only take a few forms – mostly small defensive structures – but now they could be made into any shape, and the bones would move as if they were connected by joints.

While their potential was vast, actually making something useful out of them required a capable carpenter or engineer. Within Nazarick, probably only Demiurge, and maybe a handful of others would know how to go about making one, and even then mass production would remain impossible. The next best option would be hiring human artisans, though finding some who would be willing to work with such grotesque materials was its own challenge.

"Hoh? You've really thought this out, just what I'd expect from a soldier. The Guardians have a tendency to not take threats seriously. Demiurge was designed to be a defensive commander, but his knowledge only extends to protecting Nazarick itself, not battles in general. Though, I'm sure he could get it done if I put him to it." (Ainz)

"To be clear, I do not consider the Theocracy's army to be a legitimate threat. Their regular divisions are unlikely to be a match even if we just had the undead charge forward alone, so these tactics are only being added on for the purpose of experimentation. On the other hand, if the elite special forces they are hiding truly are near the level of your Guardians, then all of this preparation would buy a little time at best. Ideally, we are overestimating them, and they would have no choice but to bring out the World-Class Item in an attempt to target the leader, that is to say, me. Once they do that, we win." (Tanya)

"Hm… I understand what you mean, but I still can't help but feel that you're taking World-Class Items far too lightly. They truly are in a league of their own, especially the Twenty. Some among them could theoretically destroy entire worlds or rewrite the laws of physics and magic, and I doubt they're any less powerful in this world than they were in the game. Even if our tests suggest you should be fine, I'm uncertain. Resurrection magic may not necessarily work on those who aren't NPCs or natives of this world, else those 'gods' who may have been players would still be around." (Ainz)

"If you're that worried, don't send me to the front lines to begin with… though it's too late for that now. Even if they are hiding a World-Class Item, their confidence in its power might mean that they won't prepare a proper backup plan in case it fails. If only other World-Class Items can stop their effects, then I doubt they'd have ever seen a case where it doesn't work. My immunity should be perfect for this, but… you're right, we shouldn't let our guard down near anything with that evil god's fingerprints on it." (Tanya)

Several weeks prior, the two of them had, at her request, attempted to research the abilities given to her by D. As there was no visible magic item to appraise, they tried to instead analyze her person, but this too resisted their efforts. Basic parameters such as MP could be read like normal, but anything more failed to give meaningful results.

When even Nigredo's once-per-day detailed analysis skill gave only garbled results, they figured they would only be able to observe abilities by their interactions with the outside world. They kept trying all sorts of effects, until eventually Pandora's Actor pointed out that her resistance against information gathering was remarkably similar to Nazarick's defenses, which were built with a World-Class Item at its core.

Using [Depiction of Mountains and Rivers], Ainz attempted to lock Tanya into a plain sealed dimension. To his amazement, she resisted the effect effortlessly. By the rules of World-Class Items, she must therefore be in possession of an equivalent item, but therein lay the contradiction. They were called 'Items' because they were all physical objects, not concepts, skills, or abilities.

Such an item could not possibly exist in YGGDRASIL, yet here she stood. After an extended debate, the conclusion Tanya proposed was that the World-Class Items, like the integrated Type-95 which they conflicted with, were created and left here by D, who had demonstrated the ability to casually manipulated the system by which the World-Class Items operated.

It was certainly a leap in logic, one which came about due to her honestly not wanting to believe that there could be many more beings with such boundless power as D seemed to carry. Assuming that were the case, any item imbued with D's power would behave the same way, though such treasures were far too rare to make up a proper sample size. Although, whether they really were sacred treasures or just leftover toys tossed in for the sake of amusement was another question altogether. Tanya was fine with not knowing the answer to that.

Given that she was now effectively a living World-Class Item for the purposes of inter-immunity, Tanya would not be affected by the Theocracy's mind control… in theory. In her experience, practical usage of theoretical value would often have disastrous consequences, as one mad scientist had made her learn.

"… Well, there's nothing we can do even if 'She' is getting involved, as much as I hate to admit it. A job is a job, I'll work something out. For the time being, I'll send out some letters to your vassals and start marshaling soldiers. In total, I need one month for them to gather, plus another four months for basic coordination and training. We'll set up just southeast of E-Rantel, in the plains." (Tanya)

"I recall Demiurge saying you'd try delaying the invasion using training as an excuse." (Ainz)

"… Three months for training, if you can give me some other mid-tier undead for wargames. This too is part of the experiment, since we need to get the humans used to fighting alongside undead, and I'd like to root out problems before we invade. Plus, letting the army be seen would help both propaganda efforts and serve to deceive foreign spies by making the army seem more real. I have my own preparation to do before then, so I can't cut back much more than that." (Tanya)

She conceded. Training an entire division's worth of soldiers in such a brief period of time would inevitably produce subpar results. However, there was no need to actually train elites solely for the sake of a ruse, only to make the army functional to demonstrate its viability. With just that requirement, even three months would be unnecessarily long. Both of them were at least vaguely aware of this, but Ainz simply shrugged.

"I don't mind the delay, we're in no rush. I'll think up an excuse for Demiurge to let you drag it out, just get the results with it so I don't end up looking stupid. Remember, don't let your guard down around them, we still haven't confirmed whether the people who controlled Shalltear really used a World-Class Item, or some Talent or Item unique to this world." (Ainz)

"Sorry, and thanks, Ainz. Then, vacation is over, so I may as well get back to work in earnest. You should probably get back before Albedo accuses you of cheating on her again." (Tanya)

Tanya stretched her arms in an exaggerated manner while sending Ainz off with a parting joke. Sadly, rather than a laugh she only saw a dejected skull looking down.

"Don't say it… that actually sounds like it would happen." (Ainz)

"… Sorry." (Tanya)

* * *

**Part 3**

Jircniv Rune Farlord el Nix, the feared Blood Emperor of the Baharuth Empire, sat on a luxurious couch with a grave expression. In his hands was a simple piece of paper and the envelope which had contained it, which was naturally the reason for his current appearance. Were he seen like this by an outsider, they might think that he had received dire news, or if they knew of his reputation, perhaps they might believe he was plotting some conspiracy against incompetent nobles.

To those more familiar with Jircniv's personality, the hint of desperation in his eyes would instead suggest a different cause. After all, internal policies under his control would never worry him this much. The one and only person – if he can be called that – who could put the Emperor into such a state with a simple piece of paper was of course the Empire's suzerain, the supreme ruler of Nazarick, the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown.

It was early winter, which meant that nearly a full year had passed since the day he had foolishly asked that monster to signal the start of the war with his most powerful magic. Ever since that day, his reputation had changed from a ruthless monarch who culled the incompetent to a brutal dictator who had sided with the undead king to slaughter their enemies.

No matter how much he tried to claim ignorance of the Sorcerer King's true power, only his closest advisors and confidants trusted him and believed that. He believed he could still turn that around by plotting a coalition with the priests of the Theocracy, but that scheme was divined and thwarted as if Jircniv's planning was no more secretive than a child hiding a broken vase behind his back.

He was crushed. He was so thoroughly overwhelmed that he almost wanted to just resign on the spot, but such actions would never be allowed. Though he found it questionable whether a vassal state could still be called an empire, Jircniv was still the emperor, and he held the responsibility as its leader to protect the Empire he loved.

As far as overlords went, the Sorcerous Kingdom was relatively generous with the autonomy it allowed its subjects. They did not excessively try to remove or replace the Empire's already meager administration remaining after Jircniv's purges. They did not impose excessive taxes or massively restructure the Empire's legal codes.

If anything, the Elder Liches they sent as civil servants lessened their workload. They were not perfect, but easily more capable than the noble sons who only got the job through nepotism. The few laws they were forced to adopt, declaring all races to be equal under the Sorcerer King and banning slavery, could even be considered to be humanitarian. He had been forced to downsize the Empire's army by disbanding two legions, but they were replaced for him by undead of superior power, and in the end most of those who were transferred away were those who had already expressed interest in leaving the military after witnessing that massacre.

Every one of these actions moved the Empire one step closer towards integration and loss of autonomy, but there was nothing Jircniv could say to stop them, as none of the individual demands was particularly unreasonable. No, even before that, he had long since lost the will to resist, just as long as his Empire was permitted to continue existing.

Recently, he had even begun looking into how to either nationalize or remove the temples in his country, lest they one day speak ill of the Sorcerous Kingdom and bring down their wrath, thereby destroying the Empire into collateral damage. Only a few months earlier he had been looking at them as his last hope for escape, but now they were nothing but a liability. Unfortunately, he had nowhere near enough divine magic casters coming out of his academy to replace the temples' without severe consequences, so that particular plan was at a standstill.

When he received a request, he would not hesitate to fulfill it to the best of his abilities. If it were an order which forfeit the lives of his citizens he might still waver, but the letter contained no such demand. Nonetheless, Jircniv could not obey an order he did could not understand.

The emperor himself gave up staring at the letter, gently laying it back down on the table. Though it was only a piece of paper, one of Fluder's former disciples who had been called in for a magic caster's opinion had almost fearfully told him that the parchment was dragonskin and the wax sealing the letter came from some sort of powerful monster, one which he could not identify.

Two hours ago, he had been resting in this room when a cloud of crimson mist passed through the open window, forming into the shape of a human. It would have looked like a rather attractive human woman, if not for the fact that its body was the same crimson as the mist, now visibly having the texture of fresh blood.

He called for the guards in the next room, but the creature wordlessly pulled a letter out from inside its arm, laid it down on a nearby table, then vaporized and left the way it came. He took a single glance at the emblem pressed into the wax, then sent away the guards who came, except for one arcane magic caster and one divine magic caster among them, who he had stay. While they were leaving, he had one of them call in Roune, the head scribe.

Once the room contained only the four of them, he retold the story of how the letter was delivered, but none of them had heard of the monster before. If Fluder were still here, things might be different, but he was probably holed up in some library in E-Rantel, or possibly inside Nazarick itself. The best guess they could give from its abilities was a variant of either a vampire or a slime, or perhaps some hybrid of the two.

In the end, rather than the identify of the messenger, the contents of the letter were of far more significance than the messenger chosen to deliver it, so Jircniv set aside that topic and picked up the letter. While his three advisors held their breaths, he carefully cracked the wax seal and opened the envelope, pulling out the paper inside and carefully scanning the lines written on it.

"What… is this…" (Jircniv)

The letter contained none of the formalities which a letter to an emperor would normally contain. If one of the Empire's nobles wrote to him, for every paragraph of real information, there would be another two paragraphs of poetry, three of pleasantries, and four of flattery. Receiving a dozen pages of reply just to accept an invitation to a party was the norm. In contrast, this letter was only a single page, and it contained only six lines.

The first addressed the letter to himself, Jircniv Rune Farlord el Nix.

The second described the military obligations between a subject and its overlord.

The third requested the presence of a unit of the Empire's troops and officers for joint military training.

The fourth described the location, the northwest tip of the Katze Plains, just southwest of E-Rantel, and the time, a date three weeks from now.

The fifth and sixth were illegible runes.

"Could it possibly be a forgery?" (Roune)

Roune, who sat next to him, looked at the letter himself and leaked that comment.

"Does there exist somebody who can use materials like this for a forgery…? But, you're right, I don't think the Sorcerer King himself wrote this…" (Jircniv)

"Then, one of his subordinates who was allowed to use the seal?" (Roune)

"That'd be my guess… but why didn't they sign it? No, perhaps they did." (Jircniv)

Jircniv glanced down at the last two lines, carefully examining them, but no matter how much he looked, they were still foreign to him.

"Do either of you two recognize these runes? Are they somehow magical?" (Jircniv)

He put the page down on the table, turning it around to face the two magic casters, both of whom leaned forward to take a closer look. Though they might not be exceptional in the way Fluder was, each of them was still an excellent graduate from one of the Empire's magic schools, and were talented enough to merit their posts among his royal guard.

The arcane magic caster simply looked puzzled as he read the runes. Meanwhile, the divine magic caster's face rapidly shifted from confusion, to realization, to shock, to amazement.

"Is this written in the Language of the Gods?" (DMC)

"Hm? What is that?" (Jircniv)

"I'm not sure what language the first line is written in, but I believe the second is written in the language said to be used by the Theocracy's Six Gods and the Eight Greed Kings, traces of which can be found on some of their lost treasures." (DMC)

"Is that what it is? Can you read what it says?" (Jircniv)

"No, I'm afraid not… it's a dead language, nobody knows how to use it. Perhaps the Theocracy is hiding somebody capable of doing so, but many have attempted to decipher it with no success." (DMC)

"I think Master knew of a spell which could translate even that language, but nobody except him could cast it. Unfortunately, he took the notes on it when he left, so we would be unable to replicate it." (AMC)

"Those myths are coming up again now… what is this supposed to mean? Why would they use that language to sign a letter? Is Ainz Ooal Gown somehow connected to the Eight Greed Kings?" (Jircniv)

"Was it written as a hint for something? Perhaps the military exercises they write about are only a justification for gathering troops, and the true goal is to prepare an invasion against the Theocracy?" (Roune)

"That does sound plausible. Were the letter to be intercepted, they could claim to only be training our soldiers. If they actually spoke of an invasion and the Theocracy got ahold of it, they could get help from the Republic's Dragons, though I'm not sure even those things could defeat the Sorcerer King." (Jircniv)

"Could that be the reason they went out of their way to use dragonskin parchment? Are they warning us to watch out for intervention from the Republic?" (AMC)

The arcane magic caster who had been quiet up until now added another theory.

"I'm not sure. From how his fortress was decorated, the Sorcerer King might just normally use such a thing, but your logic makes sense." (Jircniv)

"Why would they request our soldiers for an invasion force, though? They can't begin to compare to those undead knights, are they only there to be trampled as cannon fodder?" (Roune)

"We can't guess that monster's intentions. He certainly already predicted how our discussion would go, which is probably why the letter contains only the exact amount of information necessary for us to act. I suspect the reason they didn't even specify what sort of troops to send was because the letter was intended as a test, to see what we'd send…" (Jircniv)

Jircniv put his had to his chin, deep in thought. If he sent poor quality troops, it would reflect badly on his empire. If he sent too many, he might be accused of trying to rebel. Of course, if their commander ever disobeyed orders, every one of them might be executed as traitors.

He had to get this exactly right.

"What should we do? I believe General Kabein should be in the capital, should I call him for advice?" (Roune)

"No, Kabein is capable, but he's too stubborn for this task. If he slips up and says something disobedient, it'll be the end of us. We don't know what sort of general they'll be placed under, so somebody more flexible would be better." (Jircniv)

Roune paused, then made another suggestion.

"In that case, how about the head of the Royal Air Force, Captain Hansen?" (Roune)

"Hansen? He would be good, but he's not experienced commanding large armies. Although, putting him in charge of a smaller group of elites might be better. The portion of the Sorcerer King's army we saw was made up of a few hundred legendary undead rather than thousands of lesser ones, they might prefer that composition. Any objections?" (Jircniv)

The room was silent in response. Everybody currently in the room was trusted enough by Jircniv to advise him, so they knew he wouldn't condemn them for criticizing him. If they weren't objecting, they should actually agree with his plan. Or, maybe they just didn't have any better ideas.

"Should we leave the precise selection of troops to Captain Hansen? Or would you prefer to get Baziwood-dono's advice first?" (Roune)

"Yes, I'll listen to what they think before making the final decision, but for the time being, make preparation to move the entire Royal Air Force, 80% of the Royal Guard, and all magic casters currently idle or assigned to non-critical tasks in the capital. If memory serves, that should be around 600 men in total. It's considerably more than what Hansen normally handles, but he should be able to manage. Oh, and send 'Heavy Explosion' along with them, she'd be more than happy to join up with them." (Jircniv)

"W-wait, Your Majesty! That'd mean leaving Arwintar virtually undefended, not to mention your own person! There are noble houses, and former nobles, who would be more than happy to take the chance to attempt an assassination using this chance. Particularly with how your recent reputation, this is too dangerous!" (Roune)

Roune sputtered a list of warnings in a panic. At the same time, the two magic casters exchanged a few words, then made a similar complaint.

"Your Majesty, we're also opposed to this. The number of magic casters you are proposing to use is almost twice as many as we'd deploy in wars against the Kingdom. Even our old plans against the Theocracy never deployed that many offensively. Especially with Master having left, if we lose that many magic casters now, we'd lose decades worth of training. Please reconsider." (AMC)

In response, Jircniv gently smiled while waiting for them to finish. He turned towards Roune, nodding once before giving his own argument.

"That's a reasonable concern, but I still have two of the four knights here. Although I can't rule the possibility out entirely, they'd need people of Ijaniya's level, and we've already confirmed that they left the Empire shortly after we capitulated to the Sorcerous Kingdom. If it makes you feel better, I wasn't planning on leaving the palace much in the coming months anyway, so it should still be safe here." (Jircniv)

He then turned towards the pair of magic casters sitting across the table.

"As for you two, while it's certainly a gamble, it isn't as though we're gaining nothing from participating in this. They called it a military exercise, and even if that really is just a cover, you can expect some training. I sincerely doubt His Majesty the Sorcerer King will personally train you, but they have plenty of magic casters far superior to Fluder Paradyne you could observe. Aren't you interested in whoever it is that wrote in this 'Language of the Gods' you mentioned?" (Jircniv)

After a short pause to consider the meaning behind the emperor's words, the two bowed and accepted his order.

"Then, it's settled. Roune, get somebody to call for my Four Knights and Hansen to meet me in an hour." (Jircniv)

Picking the letter up and carefully folding it back into the envelope, Jircniv got up to leave, followed by the other three, who left to perform their duties.

* * *

An exhausted Raeven walked into his room, closing the door behind him. Unlike the office in his own estate where he had paid for counterespionage plating in the walls, this office had no such function, it was only a simple workplace. It was considerably bigger than his normal office, but the documents scattered around the room were no less dense than his own. If that room held all documents pertaining to his domain, this one held most of what was necessary to run the entire kingdom.

He checked once that the door was firmly shut, then let out a drained sigh. When he opened his eyes, they naturally gravitated towards a certain cabinet. After another sigh, he started walking in the direction of that cabinet, taking out a small glass bottle to pour himself a drink.

"Good work today, Prime Minster Raeven."

The young voice which came from the corner of his room made him jump out of his skin. He turned around in a rush, knocking aside the glass and almost dropping the bottle on the floor, though he narrowly caught both.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack, Princess Renner?" (Raeven)

"Of course not, who would take over the country if you left?" (Renner)

Renner was already siting next to his desk when Raeven entered the room, partially obscured by one pile of documents. In her hands she had a budget report from the last month, which she had been looking through until just a moment earlier.

"Prince Zanack promised me this position in the past as well, but I doubt he had ever intended to throw the entire state to me the way you have. If you don't do some work yourself, I really will take the throne this time." (Raeven)

"Go ahead, take it. If you think you can handle it, I'll renounce my title tomorrow and head off to E-Rantel with Climb." (Renner)

"Please don't. If you make me negotiate with Albedo-sama directly, I really will have a heart attack. I still want to live long enough to see my son grow up." (Raeven)

"I see. How is the wheat borrowed from the Sorcerous Kingdom working out?" (Renner)

Hearing her switch between threats and other topics without so much as a twitch to her facial expression unnerved Raeven to no end, but she was still easier to interact with than the monsters across the border. He wasn't sure how she did it, but her negotiations with them had already saved the kingdom on multiple occasions.

"For the moment, the territories are recovering. I have no clue where they got that much grain, but deaths by starvation this winter have decreased by eighty percent in territories managed by the crown, including those lands seized from collapsing nobility. Of the remaining houses, five refused the aid, and the resulting deaths have been named as cause to have them arrested for incapability for all but one of them, who had stored enough to avoid deaths. With that being said, the number of territories we have gained are impossible for me to continue managing. We simply cannot get inspectors and tax collectors out to every single one of those villages. Even before that, some of the nobles' records were so badly kept that we barely know where some of the villages are located." (Raeven)

After he finished, Renner delayed for a moment to think, then proposed a solution.

"I'll rent some golems as laborers to start on improving the roads to those territories. Even without more officials, if the infrastructure is better, it should become easier to maintain records. The villages themselves should be grateful to making trade easier, and their opinion of His Majesty should improve with this. If communication is this bad, some might not even have heard about what happened in the war, so make this the first news they hear of the Sorcerer King." (Renner)

Raeven frowned at hearing her overt motivations, entirely unfiltered.

"Without nobles crying about invading armies from the Empire, we won't be obstructed from paving roads, but can the Kingdom really afford this? The wheat alone is placing us in immense debt to the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick. If we keep building debt like this, we'll never have any grounds to refuse a demand again." (Raeven)

"Even better. The more dependent Re-Estize becomes on the Sorcerous Kingdom, the easier it becomes for them to integrate us fully, not as an autonomous vassal state, but as just another territory." (Renner)

"Must you put everything you have into betraying your father's memory?" (Raeven)

"Does that matter? Which would you rather let your young son inherit, the governorship of a kingdom-sized territory, or the remains of some rubble which once had some history?" (Renner)

As if to match its timing with the end of her sentence, a torrent of mist rushed through the borders of the large window in the room, steadily solidifying into one blob. Once enough of the mist passed into the room, the form it was gathering into gradually grew more humanoid, ending as that of a human girl made entirely out of blood.

"Good evening. What is it?" (Renner)

Though Raeven immediately got on guard against the intruder, Renner greeted the monster as if it was just one of her maids suddenly rushing into her room. It responded by taking out a letter and handing it to Renner.

"This is it? I understand, thank you for your work." (Renner)

The monster bowed deeply towards Renner, who opened the window slightly, which it then used to leave.

Renner closed the window and locked it shut, then carefully pulled open the envelope to read the letter inside. Around the same time, Raeven came out of his stupor.

"What the hell was that!?" (Raeven)

"Their species name is 'Crimson Maiden', a predatory slime with assassin abilities. Apparently they make for good long-distance messengers, when teleportation isn't available for whatever reason. They can carry some fairly large parcels, and are reasonably strong, should they need to defend their delivery." (Renner)

Renner gave an uninterested summary while reading the letter she had just received.

"How strong is 'reasonably strong'?" (Raeven)

He recalled the terror he had felt for the instant it glanced in his direction, which had made him feel as though he were only a single moment away from a swift death.

"If you gathered everybody from Blue Rose together, they might be able to draw it off. Though, they wouldn't be able to get its package, nor stop it were it actually trying to kill one of us." (Renner)

Raeven looked at her, jaw still dropped.

As she read, her mouth twitched once, her practiced smile flickering for a bit before returning.

"So that's how it is…" (Renner)

Renner handed the letter over to Raeven, who accepted it only after snapping out of his trance.

"Is this, a demand letter from the Sorcerous Kingdom? Why would they ask for our army, when theirs is already so far superior? Are they mocking us?" (Raeven)

"Isn't it just for propaganda?" (Renner)

"Meaning?" (Raeven)

"If they really wanted a fighting force, they would have specifically asked for Blue Rose, or perhaps Brain Unglaus. If need be, I am more or less capable of sending either of them. Although, even they are below the level of even their messengers. They know this, of course. Most likely, they want to make a show of some cooperative military training, to make it look like they care about the subjects' well-being. Aside from that, it might also be an excuse to start gathering and training an army… we'll probably be declaring war against the Theocracy within the year." (Renner)

"How sure are you of that, Princess?" (Raeven)

"Which part?" (Renner)

"War with the Theocracy. The Kingdom is starting to recover, but another conscription now would break us beyond repair." (Raeven)

"Around ninety percent, with another five percent being war, but with a different country. Although, as you said, they don't need our levies to crush the Theocracy. If anything, we should spread the story that the Theocracy was responsible for attacking villages in the area of E-Rantel, thereby sparking this entire war against the Empire. Redirecting the blame would be good for justifying this war internally as well, turning His Majesty into one who takes revenge on behalf of the Kingdom's citizens." (Renner)

Raeven quickly realized that his workload was about to increase dramatically.

"Should I start by spreading the news about the Theocracy? We could try turning it against the old nobility by making it a story of how Gazef-dono warned of the Theocracy's schemes, but the nobles ignored him, leading to this tragedy?" (Raeven)

"Go ahead, but be careful not to go too far with agitating them. Most of the common people don't know or care about the difference between the factions, we don't want to undermine our own legitimacy with this." (Renner)

"Understood. Will you take care of dealing with the Sorcerous Kingdom's letter, then?" (Raeven)

"Of course. Judging by the timing, if they're aiming for publicity, I'm guessing they're putting that little demon from before in charge, if only as a figurehead. Lakyus mentioned once that they fought against one of the Scriptures on their own time, so maybe they'll be interested in joining them anyway. Aside from them, what's left of Gazef Stronoff's warrior band, who were attacked by the Theocracy, they should help the justification, she wants them." (Renner)

"Would using so few men really be okay?" (Raeven)

"The Empire surely already got the same letter, nobody we can call on will compare against whoever they send. Any common soldiers we drafted now would be openly disloyal, sending them would just be self-destructive." (Renner)

"I see… I'll trust your judgment on that then." (Raeven)

Raeven let out a long sigh, preparing for more sleepless nights in the coming weeks. His only salvation was knowing that it wouldn't be long before the capital was rebuilt and stable enough to move his family here, so he might see his son's smile again.

* * *

Ainz looked through the eyeglasses imbued with translation magic to read the paper Tanya had given him.

"Is that it? Aren't letters between nobles more… decorated?" (Ainz)

"Maybe, but I'm not a poet. I've had to send letters like that to the families of my men, but they're hard enough to write in a native language you used for ten years. If I tried to write one in this world's language, the product would barely be legible." (Tanya)

"I'm amazed you managed to learn to write as well as you did. When I tried, I threw away the book on the same day." (Ainz)

"If you hadn't gotten me a Ring of Sustenance to work through the night, I would have done the same. I've learned quite a few languages over the years, so I thought it would be simple enough to learn this one, but it's a nightmare." (Tanya)

The exhaustion in Tanya's voice was unmistakable. Over the last week, she had been taking advantage of the ring's ability to negate the need to sleep to study the written language which this world used internationally every night.

Unbeknownst to Ainz, she had even been pressing her magically-augmented ability to think to the absolute limit, studying in an accelerated time to read through books even faster. Even with the ring erasing the negative physical effects of sleep deprivation, her mental fatigue was already equivalent to having spent a month straight doing nothing but studying. Even after all that, writing these few lines to be grammatically accurate was the limit of her ability.

"This can't even be called a language. I'm sure you've noticed that something translate all speech to be understandable? Well, as a result of that, they have no concept of phonetics. The language has no spoken form, you have to translate it by the meaning of the characters as you read, and even those aren't consistent. Each country started making their own words, with only partial overlap between neighbors, but since it gets translated implicitly, they all end up being magically translated correctly, but using the wrong country's form in an official-" (Tanya)

She stopped her rant when she noticed that the light in Ainz's empty eye sockets had already faded.

"-Sorry. I'm not proud of how much time I've already wasted trying to understand that war crime masquerading as a language." (Tanya)

"Ah, no, but you should probably get some sleep. If it's that bad, how are ordinary people in this world able to learn it? The librarians in Ashurbanipal are starting to pick it up as well, if only a little." (Ainz)

"If you never learned a real language and were just created with a complete understanding of one, then it wouldn't be as bad. You could just learn words by their meaning without associating them with anything else. As for the librarians… they understand written Japanese, but maybe it's the difference between having been created with the knowledge and our experience of having learned it as children. I can't say for certain, and if learning requires reading more of that written atrocity, I'm fine with not knowing." (Tanya)

"Haahh… let's make it a policy to keep written communication to-the-point in this country. Should we at least copy this onto some fancy paper to make sure they take it seriously? Demiurge's dragonskin parchment is renewable, he shouldn't miss a few scrolls' worth." (Ainz)

"Please do. I'll write two copies, just have some minions send them to the princess and emperor. I'll go talk to the last one in person, but that can wait until I sleep for a couple days." (Tanya)

"Good work…" (Ainz)

* * *

**Part 4**

Slowly gliding while maintaining an altitude of two kilometers, Tanya looked down looked down on the growing cityscape spread out across the surrounding plains. Roughly estimating, the settlement took up thirty square kilometers, although that count did not take into account the vast farmlands which sat beyond its outer walls, nor the sites marked off for future construction.

It had a somewhat irregular appearance, with buildings of vastly different construction styles placed adjacent to each other. At one edge, within an hour's walking distance of the dense forest, thick wooden walls surrounded a village of thatched houses. Not far from those walls, a grid of rugged tents filled a considerable area, easily numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands.

Immediately neighboring the camp, sturdy stone buildings which would not look out of place in the capital of the Baharuth Empire were being built along a network of paved roads. Particularly eye-catching was a square sealed with imposing stone walls, enclosing a series of workshops, forges, and other such industries.

In the distance, she could see hundreds of large figures in the process of further construction: laying out roads, digging sewers, raising structures, and even setting up foundations for fortress-like walls, surrounding not only the current village, but enough space for an entire city.

From the sky, she could recognize the careful urban planning under which the city was developing. Unlike the village section which had obviously been left alone to sprout new buildings when they were necessary, the new part was being laid out on a well thought out network of avenues complete with sidewalks and side streets. Even if they had to accommodate fifty times the current population, there would be no need to rebuild, only to expand.

This soon-to-be major city was of course Carne Village, outdated as the categorization may be. She had already read about its explosive growth in the backlog of reports, but seeing it in person, it was something else entirely. Not even a modern, post-industrial state like the Empire could build a city this quickly, yet here it stood.

Large golems and towering undead took the place of cranes, raising walls and setting stones with a dexterity no modern machine could compete against. Directing them were Elder Liches and dwarf artisans, arguing over the details written out in the blueprint the two were holding between them. Quagoa dug out basements and foundations in the night, then goblin magic casters reinforced the walls. By the time a single day came and went, the house was already a fifth of the way towards being finished.

Moving past the expanding residential area, the rolling grasslands had been replaced with agriculture of a scale that could only be called gargantuan. Repopulating destroyed villages from the papuer's district in E-Rantel had given many a new livelihood, but the food they could cultivate couldn't begin to compare to the industrial-scale harvest being produced here. Rows of skeletons numbering in the thousands were lined up in the fields, performing back-breaking tasks with perfect synchronization.

Certainly, the yield of any farms before the advent of genetic engineering would pale in comparison, but magic to improve the quality of the soil did a fair job of closing the gap. Since such magic did not seem to have existed in YGGDRASIL, nobody from Nazarick was capable of using it, but a few dozen of the five thousand-strong goblin army stationed here were able to cast third-tier magic. Eager to please their summoner, they rushed to learn such magic which would aid her, and now the fields were fertile as could be.

When their work became less hectic, Demiurge or Albedo might well be tasked with lower priority tasks like advancing agricultural technology. With their intellect, they could surely transcend what was possible in a purely scientific world, but even without their assistance, this one city was already a breadbasket which could sustain entire countries. Given a few more years, they might even be able to feed the entire continent, provided transportation issues were resolved first.

At present, excepting the old village, nearly everything within fifty kilometers was technically owned by the state. Having fully funded the construction on formerly unclaimed land, this much was only natural. In reality, they were all being lent indefinitely to the village for their use, until such a time they could be purchased by immigrants.

Most humans who had grown up among other humans would never consider moving to a city where the majority of the population was demihuman, even when the terms were made fairly generous. Inter-species boundaries were not so easy to dissolve, and only through sharing a crisis were the current residents able to achieve such successful cooperation. If reality strayed from the plan, there would be hundreds of these houses which paid no rent and required constant maintenance.

Thankfully, Carne had the direct support of the Sorcerer King not only for construction, but even matters such as immigration. New applicants came from the surrounding territories: some were lured in by lofty promises; others driven out of old homes, now taking the risk of starting in an irregular city. All in all, the resulting growth was unbelievable.

This did not come to be without any consequences, but the troubles were still well within a manageable level. Security was exceptional with golems and Death Knights patrolling the streets, and most of the population were more than capable of defending themselves. Anybody who chose to make trouble in those circumstances went beyond being called brave, they would have to be suicidal.

The Sorcerous Kingdom was not being benevolent by funding this village, they were building a city-sized advertisement. At least half the population worshiped Ainz Ooal Gown, nearly all were at least indebted to him. When travelers came to visit, they would be surrounded by advocates for his greatness, while dissidents would quickly find themselves shunned and isolated. In a sense, it was taking full advantage of herd mentality in the worst possible way.

As for Tanya, she simply saw it as a clever use of applied psychology.

She drew slow circles around Carne. Even in the pathetically undefended Federation capital, doing so would have been begging to get shot down, but this world had virtually no counter to anybody flying above a few hundred meters or so. No bow or fireball could reach anywhere near this far; their flight magic would cap out around that altitude, excepting birds and dragons who flew on their own power. Although, more likely her small body simply could not be spotted at such a distance.

Tanya's reasons for doing this were twofold:

First, she was mapping out the surrounding area in her mind. Whether it was part of the Type-95 or a separate ability granted to her, she could not tell, but the effect was the same: to mentally map out a space and recall it in perfect detail.

This had all sorts of uses, whether simply to be familiar with a battlefield simply by visiting it once, or to recall a location she only glanced at once for teleportation in the future. For a city liable to grow into a metropolis in the near future, she wouldn't be surprised if she had to travel back here several times in the future. In that sense, observing those changes could be interesting in its own right.

Second, she was looking for a single person amid ten thousand, one whose physical description she only roughly knew. Even if only counting humans, there were nearly one thousand, a quarter of whom would reasonably pass for her target, and many of that subset were in houses, which made identifying them even more tedious.

The current Tanya could pride herself upon having some of – if not the – greatest detection abilities of anybody on the planet. Noticing powerful beings like the Guardians from a hundred kilometers away by their mana signature was not out of the question. Ainz's greatest stealth magic, [Perfect Unknowable], barely made a difference to his visibility in her mind. It certainly blocked three or four senses perfectly, and yet she had a dozen more ways to track him.

As for singling out an individual out of a crowd of thousands? If she knew precisely who to look for, it would be trivial, but she only knew their sex, approximate age, and role in the city. Was she able to find who she was looking for in those circumstances, that is to say without knowing who she was looking for? Obviously not.

If possible, Tanya would have preferred not to make a spectacle of it, even if she knew it was inevitable. Whether her apparent age, the eye-popping value of the armor she was wearing, the emblem engraved on it, the unusual method of flight, or the razor-sharp tail coming out of her lower back, she was certain to draw attention.

No, something would be very wrong with any city in which that didn't attract attention.

With a disappointed, self-deprecating sigh, she sped up and dropped in the general direction of the only person here she knew, towards a square centered around a large bronze statue of Ainz. Moments before hitting the ground, she suddenly reversed thrust to perfectly touch down with zero velocity. Such a g-force would surely break a human's spine, but she performed the maneuver with practiced ease, landing without so much as kicking up a speck dust.

As predicted, every single pair of eyes in the plaza focused on the girl who fell from the sky. These ranged from curiosity to shock, with surprisingly few fearful or openly hostile. Whether this was because she did not look threatening or they had simply gotten used to unusual happenings, not having started a panic made her job much easier.

"I am an officer of the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown-sama. I have business with the mayor of this city, will somebody direct me to her residence?" (Tanya)

Personally, she would have preferred a more subtle approach, but becoming a public figure for the Sorcerous Kingdom demanded that she announce herself like this. That too was intended to spread the notion that she was a close confidant of the Sorcerer King, drawing more attention to herself, thereby pulling it away from those who would lead clandestine actions.

As soon as she mentioned Ainz's name, the villagers' expressions almost immediately shifted from doubt to joy bordering on reverence. Merely being associated with him was enough to turn an unknown demon into an idol to them, but as a result, there was nobody who actually stepped forward to assist her.

Without responding, Tanya scanned the growing crowd, which was even now maintaining a respectable distance from her. The front she now put up was fairly similar to when she had worked in the military, or even like her former job in management. In either case, showing weakness was strictly forbidden.

Focusing her gaze on a single point, she took a few steps forward, though she was not actually looking at the crowd.

"What are you doing, Lupusregina-san? Stop playing around and come out." (Tanya)

"Ehhhhh!? You can't pull somebody out of invisibility like that, the mood is important, the mood!" (Lupusregina)

The maid appeared out of thin air, or rather she was the reason Tanya had landed around here to begin with. She didn't know why she had been standing around the plaza invisible while gazing up at the statue of Ainz, and in all honesty, she didn't care enough to actually confirm her current suspicions.

"I'm here on official business. You know where the leader's residence is, don't you?" (Tanya)

"En-chan's? Well, of course I do. She's probably busy, or maybe she's getting busy? Could be either, I guess. Still interested?" (Lupusregina)

The audience rapidly began to disperse, with some gazes looking suspiciously like pity directed towards her. Only a few seconds later, nearly all of those who remained belonged to a single species: goblins.

"Please wait, Beta-dono. We cannot simply allow anybody to see the General. Who is this individual wishing to see her?"

The one to step forward and speak was a goblin in white armor, riding upon a silver wolf-like monster. He and three of his companions had been present from the start, but moments after she landed, one rushed off in the direction of the old village.

"Ahhh~ she's probably fine, she's Ainz-sama's… hmm, what is your position, anyway? Oh, well. Rather, you couldn't stop her from seeing En-chan even if you tried, so just give up and follow along." (Lupusregina)

"As General Enri's Paladin-Knights, we cannot concede so easily! Even if we must resist-" (Paladin)

"That trail of thought leads only to annihilation." (Lupusregina)

Lupusregina interrupted the mounted goblin before he could finish. Maybe he spoke only as his station required, but it mattered little to her. Her master had given an order, and goblins who would disobey were unnecessary.

Were she alone, Lupusregina might have just laughed it off, or had some fun pulling him into a position where he would suffer from his own conflicts of interest then enjoy his struggle. However, now Tanya was here, and on official business at that. Getting in her way now was nothing short of treason.

"Enough. Go inform your general about our arrival. Lupusregina-san, let's go." (Tanya)

"Yes~su." (Lupusregina)

Tanya inadvertently slipped into a frown. That maid would certainly execute somebody on the spot for insulting Ainz, of this she had no doubt. She interrupted to prevent a bloodbath, but the instantaneous reversal in tone told her that this was just another of Lupusregina's jokes, targeted not at the goblins but at Tanya herself.

Now that she had seen the direction the first rider had rushed off in – tagging him to continue observing until he reached his destination – she had figured out where their 'general' lived. Strictly speaking there was no longer a need to have Lupusregina join in, but she casually followed along behind Tanya, having no issue with letting the person she was supposed to guide instead lead the way.

As they walked, most everybody around stopped to look at the two of them, though not one actually made contact. Unlike the respect she might have gotten from fellow soldiers who recognized the medals she wore, this felt much more like she had become a rare animal in a zoo. It was a thoroughly unpleasant sort of attention, but it mattered little to her what they thought.

Were they interested, it would be easy to cross the city within a minute or two, but they were in no rush. She was already forcing through a meeting without any prior notice, trying to hurry it without giving any time to prepare would be needlessly hostile to somebody who wasn't even an enemy.

Thus, they walked casually, only arriving after nearly half an hour.

* * *

Enri Emmot cursed whichever malicious god led her into this situation.

She had previously agreed to become the chief of a few dozen villagers; she had not expected that responsibility would still be hers when Carne Village suddenly turned into a city of over ten thousand. Granted, half of them were the goblin army she had summoned and controlled, but just getting enough food into the city to feed everybody through the winter before the first harvest had crushed her.

When she cried about this to Lupusregina, she had laughed and promised to send over some help, but this only ended in her crying once again. Merely seeing the 'assistant' which walked into the room was enough to make her faint, leaving a mess on the floor and staining her clothes despite her age.

It was an aged skeleton in a deep indigo cloak, carrying itself with the gravitas of a wise elder. This undead monster whose identity neither Nfirea, his grandmother Lizzie, the former adventurer Britta, nor even the Goblin Strategist had any clue about introduced itself as a Night Lich, a transcendental monster on par with dragons.

This grandmaster of magic bowed its skull to her, apologized for alarming her, and declared itself a secretary sent by the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown-sama. Everybody who listened to this had their jaw unhinge, while Lupusregina just laughed and said, "Isn't this much only natural for Ainz-sama?"

They should have been able to guess that their undead king would send an undead servant. Perhaps she had hoped for a human helper like Lupusregina or Yuri Alpha, who had come for business on a few occasions since the first time. Maybe it was her fault for not making a clear request. It might still be possible to beg for a replacement.

Truthfully, once she got over his appearance, he was an incredibly capable governor. He never complained about working through the night to finish his tasks, nor about having to work for an ordinary village girl. He would answer her questions about leadership and offer advice on how to grow, all while giving her a steadily expanding workload to help her grow. In Enri's honest opinion, the only reason the city hadn't burned to the ground yet was because the Night Lich was there to save it.

Only half an hour ago, she had been going through ledgers, trying to understand how they related to the actual state of the city. Without warning, one of the Goblin Paladin-Knights summoned by the second horn knocked on her door, then immediately threw it open before she could respond. She wondered why the goblins normally so insistent on being respectful to her would do something so rude, but that doubt was quickly cleared when she heard his warning: an agent of His Majesty, the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown, would be visiting in only a few minutes.

Without delay, she rushed off to change from her everyday clothes to the more formal dress she had worn back when she had been summoned to Gown-sama's residence together with Nfirea and Nemu. She had barely gotten it on right when the escorting Goblin Paladin-Knight jumped in to announce their arrival.

Which brings us back to the present.

The girl who entered with Lupusregina was young, exceptionally so. Without even comparing her to Enri herself, she was barely a couple centimeters taller than her sister, Nemu. Judging by her tail, she almost certainly wasn't human, unless it was some unimaginable magic item, but it was hard to call her intimidating, even compared to an ordinary ogre.

She was terrifying in an entirely different sense of the word.

Upon entering, she reached into a gap in thin air to pull out a jewel-encrusted teapot whose price she couldn't even begin to guess at, plus a few cups with comparable decorations. Lupusregina took the teapot, filling the three cups, placing one in front of the girl, one next to Enri, then taking the last one in her hand and taking a step back, standing by the small room's wall.

The girl picked up the cup, gracefully bringing it to her lips to take a sip. Though the cup was visibly still steaming, the girl didn't seem bothered at all by the temperature, instead giving a satisfied smile. She glanced over at Lupusregina who had also started drinking wordlessly, so she followed their lead as well.

Enri was no connoisseur of fine drinks, but she could tell this was something of the highest quality. The only thing she could possibly compare it to was the tea served in Gown-sama's residence, and unlike that time when she had over-sweetened the tea, this much darker liquid was somehow perfectly to her taste even without adding any sugar, an ideal drinking temperature despite the steam. She couldn't help but gasp in amazement at the drink she had been given.

Just who was this girl who could freely offer refreshments from such a wonderous magic item, to let even somebody like her drink from a gem-studded teacup? She had even been served by that Lupusregina, the same maid who lazed around unless she was working for Gown-sama or the other Supreme Beings, as she called them.

Was this girl one of those Supreme Beings from the Sorcerous Kingdom? If so, just what did that mean? From the absolute confidence with which she asserted herself, the magic treasures and radiant armor she was wearing, she must be royalty from somewhere, so was she a princess of the Sorcerous Kingdom? What could the princess possibly want from a person like her?

On one of the many occasions the dwarf smiths got drunk, they mentioned how the Sorcerer King had two other children with him when he visited the Dwarven Kingdom, a dark elf and a pale human, both girls. Neither of them were said to have a tail, so this girl should be a third one… was there some reason Gown-sama needed children to be his officers? If that really was the case, could it be, they needed Nemu for something!?

Nobody had spoken a single word since arriving, were they waiting for her to talk first? She had only learned a bit about etiquette, nowhere near enough to speak to royalty.

Even if it was Gown-sama, who they all trusted with their lives, could she really give up Nemu for reasons unknown?

Come to think of it, when they had been invited to Gown-sama's castle, he had gone off somewhere with Nemu, could it be-

"En-chan, you're thinking something incredibly rude right now, aren't you?" (Lupusregina)

"Huhh? No, I-" (Enri)

Lupusregina's comment interrupted her thoughts as if she had been reading Enri's mind. Actually, with how she often acted, maybe she really could-

"It's okay, you can say it. Even if her chest is like that, she's not in last place, so you don't have to worry about her!" (Lupusregina)

-or maybe not.

"You… what are you bringing up all of a sudden?" (Tanya)

The first words spoken by the girl were not directed at her, but at Lupusregina. Though, her words clearly reflected her bad mood.

"You definitely win against our youngest and Entoma-chan, plus you're ahead of flatchest vampire, if only slightly?" (Lupusregina)

"For you to call Shalltear-sama that, are you suicidal?" (Tanya)

Enri stayed silent, sinking back into her seat as far as she could as the temperature in the room rapidly dropped. She had no idea who this Shalltear was, or whether she was related to the 'Pettan Ketsuki Koukuu-san' who Lupusregina had mentioned before, but she was far too terrified to interrupt and ask.

"Ahhh, sorry~su. You've been playing together recently, right? I forgot you were siding with her. Could it be, today is the day we see the birth of the Nazarick Plains Faction?" (Lupusregina)

She would die here. Enri didn't know why these two had suddenly started arguing, but between Lupusregina who could casually kill a Troll and the girl who was her superior, an ordinary human like her would definitely die when they started fighting.

"Lupusregina. Please leave the room. Immediately." (Tanya)

Enri was definitely going to die.

"Ahaha, sorry, En-chan, I was trying to lighten the mood a bit. I'll leave you two to it, then!" (Lupusregina)

With that cheerful conclusion, Lupusregina practically skipped out of the room, vanishing out the door, leaving Enri on the verge of tears, and the annoyed-looking girl.

She waved her hand and muttered something, then the sound of Lupusregina laughter from beyond the door vanished.

Ahh, it was a short life. If possible, she would have liked to spend more time alone with Nfirea.

The girl took another long drink from the cup, then set it down and sighed, looking at Enri.

"I'm amazed you can put up with her jokes on a daily basis." (Tanya)

"Eh? What? Who?" (Enri)

"Lupusregina-san, who else? You're the one she normally plays around with, and I don't think I've ever met anybody nearly as skilled at getting under people's skin as her. She knows I'm organizationally not her superior, so I can't do anything even when she plays around like that." (Tanya)

"Uh, no, Lupu- Lupusregina-san's jokes are like that, but she really has been friendly, and besides, she saved Nfirea's – my husband's – life before, so… ah, but she can be… um…" (Enri)

Her jokes really had gone out of hand on more than one occasion, but it was true that Lupusregina would regularly give her personal advice, especially concerning matters of men and women Enri had been utterly clueless about a year ago.

Could she say something like that about one of Gown-sama's maids to his envoy? What would happen then?

Thankfully, she was stopped before she said anything wrong.

"Enough about her. Would you mind if we proceed straight to business?" (Tanya)

"N-no, please, go ahead." (Enri)

"Good. Then, I have read about you, but I doubt that you know of me. I am a strategic officer of the Sorcerous Kingdom under Ainz-sama, Tanya Degurechaff." (Tanya)

"Er, Dega-gure-" (Enri)

Enri couldn't make out the foreign name, or rather she couldn't make the sounds needed to pronounce it. She had no idea what a strategic officer was supposed to be, but being unable to even name the other person was the highest disrespect.

"First names are fine, nobody around here can pronounce it right anyway." (Tanya)

Was it okay for her to address royalty so informally? There's no way it could be okay. But, Lupusregina had also object to being called by Beta, and all of them called Gown-sama by his first name, so maybe using first names was a tradition in the Sorcerous Kingdom? The envoy herself said to do so, plus she couldn't pronounce her name properly anyway, so she didn't have much of a choice. Fearfully, she switched her choice of name and continued her question.

"Then, Tanya-sama? What is it you need of me?" (Enri)

"To put it simply, I would like to borrow your army for the Sorcerous Kingdom." (Tanya)

"Army? The Goblin-sans? They were summoned with Gown-sama's magic item, so I don't think it's right to call them my army. Even without asking me, I don't think anybody would object to using them…" (Enri)

"Legally speaking, you are correct. If need be, we would be able to mobilize your army, but I hear things ended badly for the last kingdom which tried that." (Tanya)

Tanya shrugged at her own joke, but seeing it fall flat, she continued the explanation.

"Besides, the summoned units are loyal primarily to you, not to the Sorcerous Kingdom. They would prioritize your safety over anything else, even if ordered otherwise. Drafting them by force would be a waste of effort." (Tanya)

"That-" (Enri)

Enri interrupted Tanya's criticism of the goblins, then froze up immediately afterwards. They were grateful to Gown-sama, to the point of already having independently warred against the Kingdom once. Depending on what she said now, their situation could grow far worse for them. Still, she felt that she had to defend the goblins she was responsible for summoning, for all they had done to save her. She gathered her breath and spoke again.

"-That is part of their nature. For them, the safety of their summoner means more than anything else. Even if it they cause problems as a result, please keep that in mind, and do not hold it against them." (Enri)

"I am aware of that. Any army made up of different species is inevitably going to require certain considerations. With that being said, insubordination would not be excused on those grounds alone." (Tanya)

Her primary concern having been resolved, Enri nodded to show her agreement.

"I understand. If they can help us in repaying Gown-sama for everything he has done for us, please make use of them, but…" (Enri)

She agreed, but could do little to mask the sadness in her voice. Carne Village's experience with war had never been a positive one. They had been raided and invaded, to the point where barely a quarter of the original residents remained. Most had lost family, all had lost friends, and of the five thousand or so goblins she had summoned and gotten to know, how many would return alive?

Tanya evidently noticed, since she sighed and started speaking again.

"What I am about to tell you is to be considered confidential information. You are strictly forbidden from sharing it with anybody else, including your family. Do you understand?" (Tanya)

Enri gulped, then after a brief delay, slowly nodded, prompting Tanya to continue.

"While it is not yet certain, it is highly likely that will be declaring war against the Slane Theocracy in the near future. The total force we possess is incomparably greater than theirs, and the addition or absence of your goblins as a fighting force is mostly negligible." (Tanya)

Confusion spread across Enri's face.

"Umm… they're not going to fight?" (Enri)

"They will fight, but they are unlikely to take part in a serious battle they stand any chance of losing. Instead, there is meaning to them simply being in the army. Tell me, how do you think undead, demihumans, and demons are seem by the people of the Theocracy?" (Tanya)

"I don't know much about the Theocracy, but I'm guessing it's not too different from how we were before Gown-sama saved us? From the way the immigrants always look at us, it's obvious we're not the normal ones." (Enri)

"In a sense you're not wrong, but the truth is even more extreme. Some of the most core principles in the Theocracy's religion call for humanity to band together against all other species for survival. If this city would be an oddity in the old kingdom, to the Theocracy, it's something to be burned to the ground." (Tanya)

Enri listened while nodding along.

"The Theocracy asserts that undead hate and slaughter all life, demihumans are monsters incapable of thought, and… I'm not actually sure what they say about demons, but somehow I doubt it's very nice. What happens, then, when you occupy them with a well-organized army of goblins, serving an undead king, and force them to interact?" (Tanya)

"Gown-sama is amazing… to think so far ahead, and spread such a worldview…" (Enri)

"Right. Of course, I can't make any guarantees on a battlefield, but the plan is for most of your goblins to be returned safely. In the best case we wouldn't even see combat, though I doubt the Theocracy would back down on this, not after everything they've already done." (Tanya)

Enri thought back to the words she had heard from the former village chief, the passing comment he had made about the knights who attacked Carne Village in the past.

"Could you please confirm something, Tanya-sama? Were the Slane Theocracy responsible for sending the knights to attack our village?" (Enri)

"They were, beyond a doubt. I read the records on the interrogation of the magic casters captured then, who were dominated to reveal their loyalties. They were sent to assassinate Gazef Stronoff, and to provoke the Re-Estize Kingdom's retaliation against the Baharuth Empire, with no regard to the collateral damage required. Depending on their response, that will likely be our justification for war, proving their hypocrisy in claiming to protect humanity." (Tanya)

She already knew this was the case. She hadn't doubted the chief's words, but hearing the confirmation still hurt. No, what hurt was just having the memories of that day brought back to the present. Enri felt tears welling up, but blinked hard and wiped them away. Now was not the time for that, she was still in the middle of an important discussion.

"… why are you telling me all this? I'm not a noble or anything, I really am just a village girl…" (Enri)

"If that's how you see it, I'm just a powerless orphan. I had to claw my way out of far worse to get to where I am now, and I despite seeing people who idle around in life instead of bettering themselves. You are currently in control of an icon of inter-species relations, and thousands of people will come look to it as an example. If you still don't see the value of your position, then there really is no further point to continuing these talks." (Tanya)

Enri suspected Tanya wasn't telling her the real reasons, but as she was now, she didn't deserve to know. Indeed, she had been given so many gifts by Gown-sama, yet not only was she unable to repay him, she hid away from the work of managing his city until he sent even more help in the form of the Night Lich administrator. The very Goblins she tried to represent, they had respectfully called her their General, but what sort of general would sit in the rear while forcing the army to die in the front?

Tanya was already starting to get up. If Enri didn't say anything else here, it would be too late. She couldn't be like Gown-sama who can single-handedly rule a nation the way Lupusregina had described, nor could she ever be some hero who could stand against armies. She had only ever been an ordinary village girl, but she could at least stand beside the Goblins who gave her their loyalty, so that they might fight with all their strength.

"Please, please allow me to come along with those Goblins!" (Enri)

Tanya blinked once, then looked up at her. Without realizing it, Enri had jumped out of her chair, and was now looking down on the shorter girl, who hadn't shifted from her seat.

Somewhat sheepishly, Enri sat back down, falling into the chair. Tanya only watched her as she did this, saying nothing until she was back in her seat.

"A subordinate of mine once said something similar when volunteering for a mission, but unlike you, she was already a trained and capable soldier. What are you thinking?" (Tanya)

She was being looked at like she had lost her mind, though when considering the train of thought which brought her to this conclusion, that might not be entirely inaccurate.

"The reason I first agreed to become the village chief was because the Goblins told me that they would protect the village as if it were my own. Their summoner means that much to them, and if I am there with them, they would have much more cause to fight." (Enri)

"Rejected. You've just given the exact reason you can't be there. Fighting to protect you worked well only because it was an independent army and your village was under attack. With you around, their personal priorities would conflict with orders, making their discipline work against them. Introducing you into the army would just create a weakpoint, as the summoned monsters would be destroyed should you die. On a real battlefield, protecting you would be difficult even for me." (Tanya)

Although Enri was nominally a general to the Goblins, all matters related to tactics had been handled by their leader, Jugem, or later by the Goblin Strategist. Her own understanding of military matters was sorely lacking, and it showed in front of a real officer.

"It might not sound convincing coming from me, but I can't recommend going to war at that age, and worse yet, doing so for a woman in that condition." (Tanya)

Enri tilted her head in confusion. She knew that she was weak, but what did that have to do with her current condition? Come to think of it, she had felt somewhat sick recently, is that what she meant? Some priests could detect and cure abnormal conditions like sickness, but she couldn't be a priest, could she?

"Were you not aware of it yourself?" (Tanya)

Seeing the confusion on Enri's face, Tanya gave up. Gathering the magic teapot and cups, she stood up to finish.

"Tell your army to gather at E-Rantel in two weeks' time, they will receive further orders there." (Tanya)

She flicked her hand again while walking towards the door, and the sounds of nature outside once again entered the room, clearly audible against the silence up until then. Turning around once more, Tanya gave her one last hint.

"We'll step out here, feel free to discuss it with your eavesdropping husband. Enri Emmot, it's belated, but Congratulations." (Tanya)

Two heavy knocks came concurrently from outside, followed by Lupusregina shouting, "Ehhh, Enfi-chan, you really did it!?"

Tanya pushed open the door, drove an elbow into Lupusregina's abdomen at blinding speed, then grabbed her and vanished in a flash of blue light. Enri was left in the room, alone with a now scarlet-faced Nfirea.


	11. Volume 2, Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Part 1**

_Industrialization is a wondrous thing. The shift from production by a few skilled artisans to workers running powered machines, then rapidly advancing automation in factories. __Long before electricity became widespread, mechanical and steam power advanced production technology across the continent. __Mass-production delivered luxuries to the common people __unimaginable only a hundred years prior__, and of course war was no exception._

_ Whether __you look at a post-depression United States of the history I know, or the very Empire of the history I lived, it is these titans who could build a war on the scale of the entire world. Without the industrial capacity to assemble millions of machine guns and billions of bullets, there is only so much you can do even if you are able to conscript your citizens by the tens of millions – though the Federation may have something to say about that._

_Indeed, the industrial revolution was one of the core foundations for the peaceful, modern life I so miss, but one must not neglect the social progress born from the cruel working conditions of the early industrial period. Now, I will never defend the lunatics who start __a thought __at a reasonable point and somehow end in communism, but for now, I will take one idea from them, just one idea._

_ Could we please introduce child labor laws already?_

Tanya carefully set the huge crossbow down onto a wooden rack, having finished the final set for the day. While they were not nearly at the size of a ballista, each of these crossbows was easily taller than herself, a fine chunk of metal weighing in at no less than forty kilograms, capable of firing bolts which themselves weighed two kilograms at an extraordinary speed.

Obviously, these were not intended for human use, though a certain meathead from Blue Rose could probably make decent use out of one. Tanya herself could trivially augment her strength with a formula to draw and wield one, though the size mismatch meant she looked absurd holding one, not to mention uncomfortable balancing something that size.

She had actually tried test-firing the first prototype herself. Hoisting the massive bulk towards the target, she pulled the trigger, and as intended, the bolt shot towards the target. The experimental runic enchantments in the oversized frame did their job, loosing the projectile at close to two hundred meters per second, outstripping any contemporary crossbow by leaps and bounds.

Then, the law of conservation of momentum took effect. The heavy bolt shot out in one direction, while Tanya's petite body – armor and crossbow included – reacted to the recoil by flying in the opposite direction.

Had it been too long since she used a weapon with a physical projectile, and thus, with recoil? Thinking about it later, the result should have been obvious, but it had utterly slipped her mind at the time.

One moment she was holding a massive weapon, the next she was airborne and flying backwards. Her surprise in the moment even caused her to emit a silly-sounding squeal, although the observing dwarven runesmiths were too terrified of the consequences to dare laugh. Their primary concern was in fact not their own safety, but that of the prototype she was still holding onto, which might yet meet a tragic end were her irritation to turn into anger.

Thankfully for them, her confusion lasted only a moment, then reflexes from years of flight experience kicked in, and she immediately righted herself, landing on her feet and sliding to a stop. Her annoyance was self-directed for doing something stupid, rather than misdirected hatred towards the runesmiths' newest child (crossbow).

Only after she returned it to the four of them and departed did they collectively let out a sigh of relief.

This first prototype 'runic siege crossbow' was the product of these four dwarves, commissioned for the job on Tanya's own authority two weeks prior, around the same time she had started studying this world's written languages.

Remarkably, they had worked day and night to develop this first model in only that short time – no doubt the unlimited budget and rare metals provided by the Sorcerous Kingdom helped to entice them.

Even though the relative size of the wielder made for some comedic side effects, the bolt itself had accomplished its task, piercing both the thick straw target, and even cracking the boulder the target had been propped up against. Tentatively speaking, the experiment was finished, and so the dwarves went out for a celebratory drink.

Little did they know, their labor nightmares had only just begun.

Certainly, the results were a resounding success, given what they had been asked for. A focus on power without hampering accuracy too severely, slow to fire but devastating when it hits. Considering the irregular request and rushed schedule, this outcome was spectacular.

Such an unbalanced weapon carried all the same issues as giving an aerial mage a handheld 40mm cannon – it would tear through any defensive shells without resistance, but the only things it would ever hit are stationary ground targets. Adding in the loss of maneuverability from carrying both cannon and munitions, it made for such an overspecialized loadout that it became worse than useless on the field.

Thankfully, there were no aerial mages in this world, at least not by her standards. Tanya could confidently assert that every single man, woman, and child in the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion could fly by some fifty meters over two dozen such heavy crossbowmen, and not one of them would receive so much as a scratch.

In contrast, the magic casters of this world loved standing still, casting basic anti-projectile defenses, maybe summoning some monsters to fight on the front line if they were able to, lobbing fireballs at the other side, then retreating when enemies tried to charge into melee range. Even those who flew did so to hover above the reach of pikemen, not to engage in magical interpersonal dogfights.

Third-tier magic to shield against projectiles could deflect attacks from longbows and light crossbows without too much difficulty. Even early non-rifled firearms wouldn't break through, at least not in a single shot.

In front of oversized and enchanted crossbows with kinetic energy closer to an anti-tank gun than a rifle? They would be tissue paper.

This was a monstrosity of a weapon built solely to execute magic casters at range, and it would do exactly that.

With the first prototype completed and successfully tested, normal product development might now advance into production. Were this product researched done on behalf of a company or country, there might be a few kilometers of bureaucratic tape and approval to navigate through first, but in this case it was a project run by her initiative. Tanya could freely advance or cancel the project, depending on whether it could produce the sort of weapon she was looking for, and she could definitively agree that it fit all her requests.

All that remained was sending it into production.

Therein lay the problem. There were obviously no factories in E-Rantel; workshops were barely fit to produce weapons for human use, let alone mass-produce such specialized equipment. The dwarves who had immigrated into the Sorcerous Kingdom were not weaponsmiths but runesmiths, and she had only managed to commission a few of them for the project because it was close enough to their normal research. Sending them to the forges for three months was out of the question, and even then, only a couple dozen could be produced in that time.

As much as she hated to admit having shot herself in the foot with this plan, the entire task of manufacturing equipment fell on her. Well, the enchantment would still be given to the dwarves as she currently had no ability to do so herself, but the manufacture itself – which had taken up three-quarters of the prototype's two weeks – could only be done by her.

The method was of course magic: [Create Greater Item] did exactly as its name suggested and trivialized the task of outfitting an entire army. Or at least, that was the plan from before she started putting it into practice.

The upside was that despite having only a cursory understanding of a crossbow's mechanical workings, she was able to accurately recreate the prototype down to the finest detail, including the orichalcum-reinforced frame, since it was apparently a low-level metal by YGGDRASIL players' standards.

The downside was that she lacked the mana to create even a single such weapon. As evidenced by how the physical manifestation of mana was only barely attained after years of diligent work by an entire team of Imperial researchers – and even then only in a single case, with Being X's interference – outright violating the laws of physics carried an immense cost. As expected of arbitrary creation magic, the efficiency was simply horrid.

Tanya had no idea how Ainz was able to casually use such magic to create swords and armor in an instant, without so much as breaking a sweat. Unlike her reproduction magic, his original version cost next to no MP for the same effects, which was to be expected, since in YGGDRASIL the spell only created one of several temporary weapons.

For reasons unknown, some tiered magic seemed to simply be cheaper to use than should be possible by their effects, the prime example being the Super-tier magic she had yet to decipher, which had zero MP cost for Ainz, impossible as such a thing should have been. For all the normal and realistic parts of the world which could be explained, those few game-like elements confused Tanya to no end.

As such, like so many others, the magic became a utility with only situational use, unable to make any equipment she could personally make use of. It would still serve its intended role of manufacturing the first set of army equipment, though their numbers would see cutbacks.

After renting out some unused MP-recovery equipment from the treasury, splitting the weapon into several created components to be assembled, and leaving the enchantment off the product being created, she was at least able to complete a couple after slaving away for the rest of the day.

The dwarves did not get out either. When they came back from their celebration the next day, companions in tow to show off their newest masterpiece, they found three more of the siege crossbows, ready for enchantment.

With the added manpower, these were engraved with runes within a few days. Having refined the process through extensive practice, they were speeding up, if only slightly. However, when they turned around to leave for another drinking party, another dozen were lined up on neat racks, as if to block the front door.

From there, it was a worker's horror story. For every one they fully enchanted, six more would fill the gap. They tried to clear out the living space by setting those up inside the workshop, only to find scores more in their place. As they worked, more and more would be erected outside the room, as if delivered by an army of invisible demons.

If they stopped working, would they continue pushing in until they were crushed under the weight of their unfinished tasks? They could not say. However, shying away from the runes they had dedicated their lives to had never been an option for them.

Having unintentionally created a series of legends and ghost stories among the dwarven people, Tanya got the training equipment ready. Of the planned 240 sets, only half would be made, with two-thirds of those being left unenchanted. Fewer still were ready when their users – the Lizardmen – arrived in the plains.

All this really meant was that they would organize into squads of four instead of two, working together to reload and aim the weapons, which were large even for their muscular bodies. Few among them were trained in the use of ranged weapons, but by organizing these squads around their hunters, they should learn quickly.

With the removal of all threats from the surrounding lakes, plus the rapid improvement in fish farming, the Lizardman population had grown explosively to nearly 1,600, though several hundred of that number were newborns and children.

Whether their loyalty had reached the point of fanaticism, or they were simply a belligerent species eager to make use of their warrior training, the 480 Lizardmen sent were selected from a larger group of volunteers.

Selecting them for this task had largely come about by process of elimination: unintelligent undead were poorly suited for using weapons they did not have when summoned; golems were disqualified for inflexibility; ogres and trolls were too few in number, not to mention unable to distinguish normal human soldiers from their magic caster targets; giants were far too obvious as targets, and despised using ranged weapons as the greatest dishonor imaginable; abominations lacked the appendages to so much as hold the equipment.

The strong but plain Lizardmen wouldn't be able to make use of their swamp mobility in the grasslands of the Theocracy, but neither would they be impeded by it. With comparable intelligence to humans, great muscular limbs, skin and scales comparable to basic armor, if one were to simply give them equipment to make up for their lack of metallurgic technology, they would make for very capable soldiers.

Issues with production and logistics were annoying, but they could be resolved with sufficient effort on her part. Were Tanya to name the biggest problem she was struggling with, it would not be equipment, but rather this: the humans were simply too useless.

She didn't like the conclusion, but there was virtually no military value to a human army, even with all the restrictions already placed against her ability to recruit from Nazarick. Only a tiny proportion among them had any usable strength, to the point where the rest didn't even have value as cannon fodder.

Maybe if she could train and outfit them to use breech-loaded artillery, they could be made useful, but such daydreams were nothing but a waste of time. Even if she could somehow develop it, distributing that kind of technology would never be permitted.

Ordinary people could gain strength through extensive training, so perhaps subjecting an entire army to the 203rd's training regiment might reveal some capable individuals. That plan was unfortunately contingent on the humans being willing to participate in the training, as she didn't have time to waste on hostile recruits. Neither the Kingdom nor the Empire gave her much hope in this regard.

The humans had to be there for propaganda, so letting too many of them die would have consequences. Simply by being present, they became a liability. Deploying them wasn't strictly mandatory, but letting them sit idle would raise questions about why they were requested to begin with.

"Thinking about it now won't help, too much of it depends on who they actually send. I should have taken the time to observe their military and give specific requests instead of just leaving it to them…"

Tanya muttered to herself, disappointed. There were two more days until the goblins were scheduled to arrive, then another two for the Kingdom, and the Empire the next day, weather permitting. Before then, she had much work to finish.

* * *

**Part 2**

Captain Gregory Hansen of the Baharuth Empire's Royal Air Force was a very loyal man. He held the deepest respect for his Emperor, who had allowed a commoner like him to lead one of the branches of the royal guard. He had no family of his own, nor any interest in starting one; more than anything, he wished to repay the Emperor for the trust he had been graced with.

His unique Talent allowed him to mentally communicate with the creature he was riding, an ability which led him to the peak of the Royal Air Force, as well as being the one and only among their number who rode upon a pure-blooded griffin rather than a hippogriff, as he had gained the creature's trust without the need for lengthy training.

Of course, riding ability alone could not make somebody a captain, so he tirelessly practiced combat with spear and lance to make up for his limited martial talent. Certainly, he was far from being able to fight the Four Knights in single combat, but his strength came from riding upon his partner, and he was certain that no airborne threat short of a dragon existed which could best them together.

Three years later, the family of nobles who had headed the Royal Air Force for generations were stripped of their titles for incompetent management of their territory, and the captain himself had been executed. With the nearly unanimous support of his peers, Hansen was granted the position by the Emperor.

Unfortunately, his rank had since plateaued. Even with a vacancy among the Four Knights, he could not perform that job while riding a griffin behind the Emperor. His men saw him as a capable leader, but he was far from a match for General Kabein, nor for any of the other Legion Generals.

Worse yet, he had committed a terrible mistake by allowing the golden dragon to land in the castle courtyard, slaughtering a great number of his friends and threatening the Emperor personally. Even if he knew that stopping it had been impossible, he had failed in his responsibility, and the lack of censure from the Emperor only served to heighten his guilt.

A few days later, the Emperor went to visit the tomb where the dragon's master resided, naturally accompanied by the Royal Air Force. Their job was to not reveal themselves, but to remain invisible, not approach or enter the tomb, and return to the Empire should the Emperor not come back out.

He could no longer be trusted to protect His Majesty.

When the Emperor finally came out, he was no longer the same man as when he had gone in. He had lost his radiance, the unbreakable Blood Emperor left sulking and depressed. Less than a year later, the Empire capitulated, becoming the first vassal state of the undead king and his Sorcerous Kingdom.

It's all because you couldn't stop that dragon when it flew right past you.

What was the Royal Air Force doing when the Emperor's Four Knights, and even his scribes followed him into the great tomb?

Everything that has befallen His Majesty, all of them are your fault.

Nobody would actually say these things to Captain Hansen, but he didn't need to be told such things to know they were true.

He was afraid. Losing his post he could still accept, the punishment for his incompetence should be no less. What he feared was letting the Emperor suffer as a result of his mistakes, without having a chance to amend them.

Then, the orders from the Emperor came, directly to him: He was to lead the elites of the Empire's army to join up with the Sorcerous Kingdom for 'training exercises' in the Katze Plains. The Emperor did not say it directly, but the implication that this campaign would not end with mere training was plain enough.

Additionally, he was warned, in no uncertain terms, not to antagonize the Sorcerous Kingdom in any way. Hansen desperately wanted to frown, to call out or question why the Emperor was so willing to lower his head to those monsters instead of standing proudly. But he said nothing. It was not his place to question the Emperor's orders, nor to bring personal feelings into the equation.

That was his loyalty to the Emperor. The Captain should say only one thing in this situation.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

* * *

The regiment advanced in neat formation from Arwintar through to E-Rantel. Though they sent outriders to resupply as they passed the city, they did not pass through. Normally, the legions would parade through the city on their way to skirmish against the Kingdom's army, making a show of their national power, but mobilizing the Royal Guard like this would only rouse suspicion.

Concealing the entire army would be impossible, so they wouldn't even try. However, the hippogriff riders flying above, who would normally be the first to be spotted, were making full use of their Obfuscation Cloaks to remain hidden.

The Obfuscation Cloak, a magic item of Fluder's design from around three decades ago, provided a long-term invisibility effect to the rider and mount alike. Although the stealth effect was a far weaker variant inferior to [Invisibility], for a hippogriff flying in the distance, there wouldn't be much of a difference between the two. In exchange, the effect could be maintained semi-permanently, flying two hours, then landing to recharge for two hours.

Of the forty or so hippogriff riders accompanying the army, one third would be in the air at any one time, with the remainder following along on the ground to rest and recover. This formation allowed the flying outriders to scout at a much greater distance than they would be visible at, so as to get the drop on any opposing force not aware of the magic item's existence.

They weren't exactly on a secret mission, but many of those marching were the hidden elites of the Empire. No doubt at least a few of the neighboring countries would love a chance to observe them in detail, if given the chance. Thus, they navigated around cities, redirected travelers around them, and stopped merchant convoys who tried to follow them for protection.

Exactly on schedule, they arrived at the now-defunct fortress by the Katze Plains, then after a brief rest, continued following the road towards E-Rantel. Before long, the training grounds came into view.

As the one flying near the front of the column, Captain Hansen was among the first to spot the encampment in the distance. Both common sense and training dictated that a knight flying at high altitudes should avoid opening his mouth needlessly. His brain was aware of this, but just knowing wasn't enough to stop his jaw from dropping.

He had not personally been at the battle in the Katze Plains, but he had heard the stories from fellow knights and officers alike. Yet, there was a clear difference between listening to a tale he thought exaggerated, and actually seeing them himself.

Gigantic black knights born of all the malice and hatred of humanity, carrying immovable tower shields and clad in impenetrable armor which pulsed as if circulating blood.

Horse-like undead beasts which radiated an aura of death and decay, the gaps between their bones filled with a glowing blackness, a void which consumed all life.

Pale-blue dragons and giants whose threat need not be explained, gathered in numbers previously unheard of.

A mammoth skeletal centipede, its insides filled with cargo crates, the whole creature having been converted into an unliving convoy.

Hansen held his breath, for fear of it being stolen away by the distant creatures.

He should be invisible, but did that really mean they could not see him? Should he flee now, when he might still have a chance to escape with his life?

His heart rate skyrocketed, his breathing grew shallow. In his mind, he heard the panic of the griffin below him. It was not being paralyzed with fear like a trained warhorse, but an instinctual fear. It wanted to flee if only he would allow it, but the responsibility they shared as rider and mount meant there was no such choice for either of them.

They dropped to half their previous altitude, pushing the horrors past the edge of the horizon and out of view. As he slowly recovered his breath and calmed down, he focused his eyes to look around in the surrounding air, trying to spot the nearby shimmers of the other riders in his squad.

As expected, they had done the same thing he had, falling closer to the ground to stay out of sight of the encampment.

No wonder so many of the Empire's knights had chosen to retire after that last battle. If the prestigious Royal Air Force could briefly fall into a panic from observing those things, what would happen to ordinary knights suddenly made to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them?

He pitied the Kingdom's soldiers, who had to stand opposed to monsters like- no, worse than these, if rumors were to be believed.

Hansen took a deep breath, then started to ascend. He was a proud knight of the Empire. Those things were not his enemy. He was a soldier. They were allies. They are not hostile.

Pulling off his cloak and carefully folding it into a bag, he flickered into view as the invisibility effect was cancelled. Voices would never carry across the loose formation of hippogriff knights, so all communication had to be done by signals or by magic. All eyes should be on him since he became visible, so he raised his left arm above him and gave an order.

'Pull back; Remain above the main force.'

They would approach with the army, while he would go on ahead to announce their arrival. Normally such a task would never be performed by the commander himself, but he was not optimistic about the outcome of sending an ordinary knight as a herald into that camp. "Heavy Explosion" Leinas might be able to bring herself to enter, though her unique arrangement with the Emperor meant that he only barely held the right to give her orders, and she was more or less free to ignore them as she saw fit. Besides, sending somebody with her appearance as an envoy could be interpreted as an insult in and of itself.

The griffin leveled out its flight, steadily gliding towards the camp. As they approached, he could feel many things watching him enter, but no attackers came to intercept him. They were letting him pass.

With the first hurdle cleared, Hansen sighted the largest building in the compound, a central fortress which might as well have sprung out of the ground just for this purpose. No doubt that was a command center, where the general to whom he should introduce himself would reside.

He had no idea what sort of fiend could be the leader of an army like this, so he would need to be directed by somebody else.

Looking at the clearing in front of the fortress, he saw two figures watching him approach. One was a long-haired maid, the other looked to be a smaller girl with a silver tail. Since they were waiting here, the two of them should be servants of whatever creature was the leader.

Nodding once, Hansen resolved himself, then warily brought his griffin down to land in front of the two servants.

* * *

Tanya stood with CZ near the entrance to the fortress. Reports had already come in that a detachment from the direction of the Empire was approaching on schedule, though that report had come in hours ago. It was only by coincidence that the two of them had stepped outside to see the incoming griffin come into view, only to dip back down a second later. Seeing through simple pseudo-invisibility was trivial for either of them, so both of them watched with a mix of amusement and curiosity as the griffin approached.

"It looks similar enough to the mythology that I know, but I'll ask to make sure, what is that thing?" (Tanya)

"… Ordinary griffin juvenile. Adults can reach around level 20, at this age it should be near 15. The strongest subspecies I know of is the level 76 Griffin Storm King, which Aura-sama keeps on the 6th floor." (CZ)

Her question got an immediate answer from CZ. It certainly didn't seem particularly strong, but it was better to ask a specialist than to rely on her superficial knowledge of legendary monsters.

_How do so many different worlds end up developing such parallel myths? Or were these also created based on that game a few hundred years ago? Yet another story to research when I find time…_

As Tanya thought about such trivial things, the griffin spiraled towards the courtyard where they stood, diving down and flapping its wings once near the surface to ground itself. The landing itself was gentle enough, but their close proximity to the site meant that both of them had their hair scattered by the wave of air pressure.

For Tanya, her hair wasn't long enough to really get in the way, so she just brushed it aside lightly with her left hand to keep it out of her eyes. As for the maid, her long, straight hair naturally went everywhere, yet somehow settled perfectly into place as soon as the wind finished blowing past.

How such an event could happen without the slightest tangling was a mystery unexplainable by modern science. Though CZ's facial expression wouldn't change so easily, it was clear enough that she was getting irritated.

Looking down on the two of them from atop the griffin's back, Hansen called out with the booming voice afforded by his body size.

"My name is Captain Gregory Hansen of the Imperial Royal Air Force. We have arrived with five hundred of our elite men in response to your invitation. Please direct me to your general so that I may convey this information directly to him." (Hansen)

"…uwaaahh, what a rude person…" (CZ)

As Tanya watched in genuine shock at his actions, CZ was the first to interrupt and say what both of them were thinking. It was a quiet murmur, just barely loud enough to be heard, but from how the corner of Hansen's mouth twitched, he had obviously heard her.

"What-" (Hansen)

"Does your excuse for an empire not have the tradition of dismounting in front of a superior officer, or are you simply incapable? Get down." (Tanya)

Before he had the chance to speak again, Tanya cut him off with an accusation. Her voice couldn't begin to compete with his in volume, but the weight of the implied threat was in no way inferior.

Hansen flinched from the utterly unexpected response, having suddenly been mocked by the maid and-

He froze while thinking about her words. Without a doubt, she had called herself their superior officer. From the building fear he could feel from the griffin linked to his mind, she must be considerably powerful, easily surpassing the magic beast.

A single rumor came to mind, from the mouth of a trader hailing from the Kingdom. He had spoken of a mythic fight between two demons in the skies above the capital, one massive and one-

"I told you to dismount. Would you prefer it if I treated you as insubordinate instead of simply incompetent, Captain?" (Tanya)

His thoughts were again interrupted by the demon, who was now radiating an aura of hatred which made griffin and rider alike tremble. After receiving the first warning, he had remained frozen in place as he thought, earning her ire. There would be no third chance.

He swung his right leg over to the left side, vaulting over the side of the griffin in one smooth action to land on the ground a short distance away. Despite this, his height still towered over the two as he turned to face them again.

"May I confirm something? Are _you_ the highest authority at this camp?" (Hansen)

"Correct. Strategic Officer and General under His Majesty, the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown-sama, Tanya Degurechaff. On behalf of His Majesty, I have been tasked with training and organizing the armies gathered here into a cohesive force." (Tanya)

She did not exchange salutes as she might upon meeting Imperial High Command, nor greet him cordially as she would her own subordinates. From his initial attitude, he would likely be a subordinate in name only, an ally who gave only the bare minimum support to avoid censure. He was too loyal for his own good, to the point where it harmed his flexibility.

Personally, she might have preferred to just cut her losses and replace him immediately, but they were currently far too lacking in commanders to discard a potentially capable candidate so easily. Unlikely as it seemed, if he was the type who could properly set aside personal grudges to work, she wouldn't have any issue getting along with him.

Although, even after getting the explanation, hints of doubt remained on his face.

"I'll give you one piece of advice, Captain: Whatever assumptions you may think to make based on species or appearance, discard them now. Around here, they will only cause problems." (Tanya)

If he listened and followed orders, he would stay. If he couldn't understand even with this, then he was beyond help.

"Thank you for the suggestion, General… I will relay those words to my men." (Hansen)

Rigid and stiff, but not an inappropriate response. For the time being, it was acceptable. Tanya nodded and continued.

"Good. Just this once, I will write off this as an incident caused by a simple misunderstanding. Do not allow it to happen again. Then, I'll hear your report on the composition of the forces you brought." (Tanya)

There were quite a few complaints Captain Hansen wanted to give in reply.

_It's a misunderstanding because your side's letter said nothing about it. __Nobody could predict this outcome just from that._

_ How do you expect us to know anything about your kingdom's rank insignia __and organization?_

_ The Emperor __and his Knights described the monsters who looked to be warriors, but how do you expect anybody to guess that looking at you?_

The list rushed through his head, but there was nothing he could actually say, not after being warned as he had just been. There was always the possibility that this was all some intricate trap to justify disbanding the Empire's legions even more than they already had. If he spoke his mind, his generation might be the last Royal Guard.

With that in mind, he held his tongue, and began the requested report.

* * *

The detachment from the Empire numbered 540 in total: 40 were Hansen's aerial cavalry, every last member of the elite squadron; 80 were arcane magic casters of various ranks, including two of Fluder's former disciples who could use magic of the 4th tier; 60 others were divine magic casters, though fewer than ten of their number had reached the 3rd tier; 60 members of the royal guard, half of whom had recently been promoted to the position and given what equipment could be salvaged after Mare's earthquake. The remainder were selected from the most capable Imperial Knights stationed in the capital, accompanied by a small number of noncombatants in charge of managing their supplies.

_A single Captain being assigned over five hundred men, isn't that a few ranks too low, or do they have completely different __standards__?_

The thought came up during his introduction, though since it might have been her error for not knowing about the Baharuth Empire's officer rankings. If it were her empire, commanding a unit of that size, he should have been a Major at very least, although considering they were made up of several elite groups pushed together, a Lieutenant Colonel would have been more sensible.

The people selected were certainly the Empire's elites, but there was very little coordination between them. Most were not exactly independent groups and didn't have officers of their own, and although they were all part of the same army, they had never been deployed together like this.

To begin with, the magic casters were not sent against the Kingdom in large numbers, as they were too valuable to risk sending to the front. Each year, only a few dozen would see combat, and even then they would either support a legion from its center. Similarly, most of the knights and guards present had been promoted through the ranks of regular imperial knights, and those few who went into battle did so as the generals' guards.

Without the legions which serve as the backbone of the Empire's army, this unit would be far less potent than it appeared on paper. While calling them 'weak' would be an exaggeration, their lack of coordination with each other would definitely have shown had they been ambushed by strong monsters on the way. However, thanks to the reconnaissance by the Royal Air Guard, they encountered no such difficulties.

In total, it was nearly three times the 200-strong unit sent by the Kingdom, though the difference was hardly surprising considering either country's current situation. Both had now settled down in their own camps, making the difference in both size and quality obvious. Whereas the Empire had maintained and expanded their permanent standing army over the past decades, the Kingdom had been slowly starved of their manpower in the yearly skirmishes, and just last year had the majority of their military command annihilated.

As they were already drained of men to the point of having to import food from their overlord, a new draft was out of the question. Well over half the remaining soldiers were employed by the nobles who had since been nearly wiped out, and were thus effectively disbanded. In summary, the couple hundred royal guards who had survived the war were the only force available to be sent out.

Led by Gazef Stronoff's second-in-command, this force was a sort of successor to his warrior band, having been formed with their remaining members at its core. Though they could be called elites of the Kingdom, comparing them to the Empire's regular knights would still be generous. Only a couple were near the level of the elites they had brought out now. Worse yet, the Kingdom couldn't even deploy a full dozen magic casters for this group, and those who had were at or below the 2nd tier in arcane magic.

The Empire's Magic Academy required a term of service after graduation, so as to ensure that talent remained in the country. Naturally, attempting defection was punishable by death. Exceptions which resulted in capable magic casters dropping out to become adventurers or workers were considerably rare, and even those few who did were bound to not leave the country if they didn't want to be hounded by assassins.

On the other hand, as the Kingdom had no such education program established, there was virtually no reason for a capable magic caster to work for the country. Unless they were bound to service, such as with children of nobles who had learned to use magic, a third-tier magic caster would certainly either become an adventurer, or find employ with rich merchants or nobles who could offer far more generous terms than the meager payment the Kingdom could afford.

At the same time, the lack of state-run training for divine magic casters meant that the few who were able to use healing magic were affiliated with the churches. The leadership of the Kingdom had little sway over them, and they maintained their monopoly carefully, to the point of pushing for laws which made it a criminal offense for adventurers to heal those outside their party without compensation. Admittedly, this was one of the guild's rules internationally, but only in the Kingdom was this enforced this as law rather than internally in the guild.

At the core of their faith was the tenant that undead were the enemy of all life, so not surprisingly they weren't exactly eager to offer support to the Sorcerous Kingdom. The rare few who were either brave or stupid enough to openly oppose Ainz were summarily removed, but those who simply did nothing were allowed to remain. With all the dangers of this world, healing was a vital service for the nation and its people alike, so shutting them down on a whim would only serve to agitate them and buy animosity.

Once Nazarick's rule over the surrounding countries was more secure, the churches would inevitably become more malleable to their control. In particular, removing support from the Slane Theocracy – whether monetary or moral – was a critical step in that process. Before that, there would be little to gain by making demands of them; as for what to do with them after that, they had not yet decided.

Demiurge argued that the humans should be made ready to worship Ainz as a god, so that as soon as Ainz himself gave the order to do so, they could begin doing so without delay. As he himself had demonstrated in the Holy Kingdom, even the most devout of humans could be converted, and it was only natural that Ainz who sought to conquer the world would stand atop it as its sole deity.

Tanya insisted that it would be much better to exterminate the organized religions as soon as they had a good chance to do so. Were churches worshiping Ainz to become entrenched, getting rid of them later would become next to impossible, no matter what form they took. When the target of their worship could be demonstrated to exist, conflicts between what the doctrine taught and how the real thing acted would quickly spiral out of control. Even in the best case, they would lose control of the churches sooner or later, thus they should all be rooted out before they could start converting.

It was one of the rare topics in which Tanya firmly disagreed with Demiurge, and refused to back down on. No matter how much glory it might bring to Nazarick, even if it was incredibly effective in spreading the name of Ainz Ooal Gown, and in both conquering the continent and stabilizing it, Tanya wanted to avoid that outcome. Becoming servants of the Supreme Divine Being might be great fun for the Floor Guardians, but she was convinced that letting organized religion of any form survive would get in the way of her peaceful life in the future.

Thankfully, she was being left in control of destroying the Theocracy, so she could influence it to some extent. Utterly crushing their faith in a short time was wouldn't be possible, but she could at least make some progress in the meantime. Even if it wasn't part of her mission, as long as she wasn't forbidden from doing so, she would further her personal goals.

Much like an independent 'recon-in-force' against the Brest Naval Base, it was a legally permissible action, if only barely. Except, this time, she wouldn't stop to ask for authorization. There were many lessons to be learned from war, but the one she chose now was to not let future problems survive to threaten her peace.

Tanya smiled, thinking about the life to come. The sudden change caught CZ's attention, who had been waiting in the room without a word, which in turn caused Tanya to revert her expression. The maid never gave her reason for being here, so she might well be an observer sent on behalf of Demiurge or Albedo. She had no obligation to give them hints about what she was thinking.

That worry would be resolved much faster than expected.

She sensed a living mist rapidly approaching, navigating the halls of the fortress to arrive in front of her door, where it reformed into a humanoid. There was no use waiting for it to knock when she already knew it was there, so she just called for the Crimson Maiden messenger to enter.

"Reporting. An army of five thousand humans is approaching from the west, to arrive in one hour. Their identity is unconfirmed, however they are raising banners of both the Sorcerous Kingdom and Holy Kingdom. How should we proceed?"

"… She's here. Let them in." (CZ)

CZ seemed to be pleased, which only served to confuse Tanya further.

"… Who?" (Tanya)

* * *

**Part 3**

Three girls stood facing each other inside a neat, modestly decorated office.

The Officer, who had still not received an explanation about the current situation.

The Archer, who was glaring at the aforementioned Officer with unrestricted hostility.

The Combat Maid, who stood watching over the interactions of the other two from the side.

Strange as this collection of individuals may appear to outsiders, at some point this sort of military command had become the norm for the Sorcerous Kingdom. To be precise, one was not officially associated with them, but her love and loyalty for Ainz were in no way inferior.

Tanya watched the girl who CZ had brought in, the one who had been glaring at her with a profound hatred ever since she had first entered the room. This was without a doubt the first time they met – in fact they hadn't even met yet, as a single word had yet to be spoken – yet it seemed she already had no interest in friendly relations.

Did she have a particularly extreme hatred for demons? Considering what 'Jaldabaoth' had done to the Holy Kingdom, that wouldn't be surprising. Although, she had come this far by her own volition, and the story Ainz had given at the time described CZ and the rest of the Pleiades as demons themselves. The more she thought about it, the stranger the girl's reaction seemed.

_Her expression hasn't changed much at all since she entered, except when she glances over at CZ. Could it be that she isn't trying to be hostile, but __rather her face __just looks that way?_

"… Neia, self-introduction." (CZ)

"Yes, CZ-senpai!" (Neia)

The first to break the silence was CZ, who got an energetic reply out of the evil-eyed girl.

_Senpai?_

"I am honored to meet you, Honorable General Degurechaff. I am Neia Baraja, temporary squire of His Majesty, the Sorcerer King, now the leader and orator for all who recognize Ainz-sama as the embodiment of true Justice. After CZ-senpai sent that letter, I came with five thousand of our most devoted to repay even a fragment of the salvation we received from the Sorcerous Kingdom." (Neia)

_It helps that she's not angry, but why does she sound so excited? And what's that excessive title, did she practice pronouncing my name before coming here? What did CZ write in that letter, and just what the hell did Ainz do in the Holy Kingdom to get this kind of devotion? The Ministry of Public Enlightenment would love to study under you!_

Tanya looked over at CZ, who was evidently the mastermind behind this, though she probably had not done so out of malice. The maid took no notice of her glance, instead choosing to walk over and pat Neia on the head, ruffling her hair despite. The strange scene briefly made Tanya lose her words, watching the sisterly act, so out-of-character for the emotionless girl that she didn't want to step in and interrupt.

Not long after, Neia looked past CZ, her eyes stopping at Tanya's breast. Above her usual dragonscale armor, she wore a dress shirt in the style of her old military uniform. Although, since Nazarick had no military history or decorations of its own, it was a replica more than anything else. What drew Neia's attention was, stuck on in place of a medal, was a single sticker.

"Ah- then, you are CZ-senpai's- no, you are also one of His Majesty's maids?" (Neia)

"Maid? I don't recall becoming a maid." (Tanya)

"… She's not one of our sisters. But, it's hard to say who's the senior and who's the junior." (CZ)

"Thinking about it normally, that would have to be you, right?" (Tanya)

"… nn, in terms of time serving Ainz-sama, but the one called senpai should be stronger." (CZ)

"Could she be even stronger than CZ-senpai?" (Neia)

Neia who had been listening to the exchange cut in. She found it hard to believe that anybody except Jaldabaoth or Ainz himself could stand above those difficulty rating 150 maids. Well, there was the Momon who they had originally searched for in the Sorcerous Kingdom, but they were obviously unrelated. But, the savior she looked up to didn't hesitate for a moment before confirming her confused question.

"… Far stronger. Level is lower, but could fight against Jaldabaoth." (CZ)

"Stop it, you're saying too much." (Tanya)

Tanya tried to stop CZ from pointlessly leaking information. At the same time, Neia herself only looked at her with bright eyes, though they were tinged with loneliness.

"Everybody around His Majesty is amazing… to be just and powerful, but continue to gather strength nonetheless… is that what it means to be strong?" (Neia)

"That is simply comes from understanding that there is always something more powerful, no matter what you are." (Tanya)

Three beings came to mind. The one she had finally managed to entrap and see destroyed, then the other two – the white and black – whom she could never reach. Two who could erase her at a moment's notice, all while she remained utterly incapable of responding. Tanya's fist unconsciously tightened.

"Um, General, if it wasn't through Jaldabaoth, how did you come to serve His Majesty? Would you please explain that?" (Neia)

At this, Tanya paused for a second, debating what to say. This wasn't a question she had prepared for, so she had to be careful of contradictions. The truth was obviously out, but refusing to answer might just make her more curious. She glanced over at CZ, who nodded, likely misunderstanding her concerns.

She sighed, then began slowly circling the room while narrating.

"There once existed a great demon by the name of 'Teikoku'. It was a being whose might spanned an entire continent, with an unrivaled mind for strategy and subordinates numbering in the tens of millions. Young and ambitious, it reached out towards its arrogant and decadent neighbors, consuming allies and enemies alike by the millions. Before long, the entire world rose against it, but even still it continued to fight and push back. For almost half of this life, I had no choice except to serve as one of its soldiers." (Tanya)

Tanya paused, observing the other two's reactions without turning back towards them. Neia was captivated with a slightly pale face, and for some reason, even CZ seemed to be listening with interest.

_She does already know the real version, doesn't she?_

As she was still facing away from them, there was no way for them to spot any changes to her face. Her dramatized story continued.

"With that being said, I don't know how it ended. An even more powerful entity interfered, and I was separated from the control of 'Teikoku' for a brief time. During that period, I was picked up and saved by Ainz-sama. No doubt the battle still continues, undecided to this day." (Tanya)

"… ohhhhhh" (CZ)

CZ chimed in, whereas Neia remained pale.

"If it is still alive, is there a possibility that demon lord would come attack the Sorcerous Kingdom in revenge?" (Neia)

Tanya thought about it. Although it was on a whim, now that she had written up this backstory, it might end up turning into one of Demiurge's grand plans.

"I won't say it's impossible, though I expect it will remain occupied with its fighting for centuries to come. Although, I was only ever a mid-rank officer, so that prediction could easily be off." (Tanya)

She gave an ambiguous answer, one which left plenty of leeway for rewriting the schedule as necessary. The story was stitching together fragments of truth without context or explanation, so she had some confidence in being able to expand if it were to become necessary. Just as she said, a Major was roughly halfway up the officer ranks, and would naturally have limited access to strategic plans.

The personal connections she had with Zettour, Rudersdorf, and Lergen in Strategic HQ gave her more than the average officer, but even after taking that into account, she rarely heard more than she needed without taking the initiative to dig deeper. Theoretically her promotion to Lieutenant Colonel had only been a few days away, though her sudden disappearance and de-facto defection obviously nullified that.

It was wasted effort on her part.

Neia heard the full story, committing it to heart to the best of her ability, but the words that echoed in her mind were the General calling herself 'mid-rank'. Demons were hierarchical, extremely so; perhaps there were exceptions, but for them, a higher rank would nearly always correspond to greater personal power.

An archfiend like Jaldabaoth – the Demon Emperor – stood at the very pinnacle of their kind, or so she thought. Only a couple years ago she would never have believed a being like that could exist, but he did – as did the great Sorcerer King.

CZ had personally identified Tanya as being comparable in strength to Jaldabaoth. As she was somebody who His Majesty had personally selected, that much was only natural.

However, such a girl had identified herself as _mid-rank_. As far as that Teikoku was concerned, her own strength was only average; hence, many tens of millions of demons were incomparably more powerful than herself.

Neia shivered. Forget the Holy Kingdom, could even the Sorcerous Kingdom survive an invasion of that magnitude?

A small hand settled on her head. It had almost no warmth of its own, but to her, it was more reassuring than anything else.

"… Leave it to Ainz-sama." (CZ)

"Yes, CZ-senpai!" (Neia)

Her mood performed a perfect 180 with just a few words from CZ. The atmosphere spreading between the two was once again something Tanya felt she didn't want to interrupt. They were a pain to deal with for completely opposite reasons to somebody like Hansen: one was an ally, the other had been nothing but respectful; snapping at either of them was hardly appropriate.

Part of her wanted to just leave, but she still had work to do. The girl clearly adored Ainz, perhaps even more than that, so her loyalty wasn't in question. However, learning the circumstances behind her bringing troops from a foreign country in these numbers were extremely important for cutting off potential political issues.

"So, setting that aside, why are you here? Although you mentioned a letter from CZ, is it the official position of the Holy Kingdom to send these soldiers?" (Tanya)

"Er, no, I do not represent the Holy Kingdom, this is only a personal action on my part. When CZ-senpai asked, I gathered volunteers and traveled here with them." (Neia)

"Wait. You mobilized five thousand soldiers just for that? Does your army permit that level of autonomy?" (Tanya)

"Um, as I've said, although I am a former squire, I do not currently have any relation to the national army. Everybody within the Holy Kingdom receives military training, and many former officers volunteered, but the organization is not under the command of the Holy Kingdom itself. The total number of combat-capable individuals in the organization is a little short of forty thousand, but I was advised to only bring this many, as we would be unable to supply more than that." (Neia)

"… So you have an independent standing army, under your personal control? Without any oversight or regulation from the government itself? Are you serious?" (Tanya)

"Yes, that is correct…" (Neia)

Neia wasn't entirely sure why Tanya was so surprised by this. The nobles in the Southern Holy Kingdom each led thousands of knights, while some of the great nobles in the Re-Estize Kingdom commanded upwards of eighty thousand, if their vassals were included.

The present situation in the Holy Kingdom had been rapidly changing over the past few months. As the Northern Holy Kingdom had disproportionately taken damage from Jaldabaoth's invasion, a great many of their citizens had died, their economy had collapsed, their cities razed and their fields burned.

When the North lacked the means to recover on their own, the South responded not with aid but with sanctions, designed to curtail Prince Caspond's power, pushing for him to abdicate his seat as Holy King in favor of an indirect relative from the South. In the months since Jaldabaoth's defeat, material aid to the North had actually decreased.

The amount of wealth held by the people grew, if only slightly, but food and other living costs were rising faster. Discontent and civil unrest was widespread, and the majority of the North's population saw the nobles from the South as oppressors rather than fellow countrymen.

In such desperate times, they were offered salvation and protection under a foreign monarch, a great being who had personally come to save them from the Demon Emperor. Tens of thousands had personally been rescued by him, but those spread word of his heroics to millions. After countless iterations, those actions had been embellished to the point of perfection.

Unofficial it may have been, but those followers guaranteed the stability, prosperity, and safety of His Sorcerous Kingdom for those who offered their support. With the lack of aid coming in from the South and evasive promises from their own government in the North, their words spread throughout the entire country like a virus.

Of the 3.5 million citizens in the Northern Holy Kingdom, nearly one million were sympathetic to their cause, of which 200,000 were active supporters, a fifth of whom were ready to take up arms on their command. Many among those were openly against the government.

It wasn't hard to guess the future of that country. For Tanya, the primary concern was how much of those circumstances were planned by Demiurge during his invasion. As he had already left meticulous notes on both his own actions as well as those of Ainz, she – who had received permission to read through them – would be expected to understand their cryptic motivations.

Nazarick was not some worker-friendly company where she could just ask for an explanation. Were they already gathered for some meeting, she could stop him to ask for advice, but she did not have that luxury.

Faced with the thread of a [Message] being forged, any restricted information could only be exchanged in person, usually by one of the parties teleporting to the other. Since his time was far more valuable than hers, asking him to spend it for her would mean a serious demerit against her.

Unfair as it may seem, she would be punished for interfering with Demiurge's ("Ainz's") well-laid plans – plans which she was expected to know about without being told. Such was the challenge of working under a near-perfect genius.

With that in mind, she wasn't about to start complaining about receiving the authority and independence she had originally requested. All it meant was that she had to tread carefully; though she would honestly have preferred not to get involved with somebody like Neia, who was almost certainly at the core of at least a couple plots in the Holy Kingdom, a living landmine of sorts.

"Well, fine. How much were you told about what you were sent here to do?" (Tanya)

Tanya chose to drop the subject and move on. Watching CZ's completely informal interactions with Neia made it difficult for her to remain serious as the discussion drew on, and hearing her switch between nervous and excited based on who she was speaking to was getting exhausting.

"Truthfully, we only heard where and when to come, not what we came to do. Some of my advisors suggested that we respond to later request similar assistance when we need it. Although, since we are already indebted to His Majesty, I couldn't do something as audacious as asking anything in return. Please, use us as you see fit." (Neia)

While Neia bowed her head, Tanya tried to think her motivations.

_Is she stupid, or just __single-minded__? __Since she knows how to use advisors to make up for her own inexperience, the latter? __To plainly speak their goals without negotiating, she trusts us simply by association with Ainz, and after only a few months of interaction. Or on top of that, how her relationship with CZ turned into this. __They're a mystery._

_ I get the feeling that __we could __make __good __use of her soldiers, and especially the officers she brought alon__g. Getting some information about the Theocracy out of them might save a lot of effort. Though, it's a stretch to hope for them to know of a national secret we haven't found yet._

_ Breaking in to steal intelligence… would have to wait until we can attack them openly; even those Hanzo monsters couldn't get into the capital's vaults without killing any guards. __I'd love nothing more than to just strike the capital with overwhelming force and wipe out everybody Dunkirking out with treasures, but… they might have some hidden means of escaping which we can't track. Besides, open aggression won't be good for future diplomacy._

_ There's not enough intelligence, so we have to let them take at least one action. Since we don't know what we're looking for, they have to be the ones to bring it to us. We need to cut them off from any other options except a decapitation attack against myself, a fight they can only win using that item._

_Everything __after that __is __just __a bonus._

She silently watched the two once again slipping into their own conversation. She had already heard most of what she was interested in learning.

_On second thought, let's just leave her to CZ._

* * *

**Part 4**

The fortress city of E-Rantel was considerably busy in the middle of the day, as one might expect of its size. The hustle and bustle of residents, travelers, and merchants was enough to disturb conversations over more than a couple meters at street level.

However, among the numerous amenities of the Shining Golden Pavilion – befitting its incredible rent – were soundproofed rooms. One particular corner room, which unlike its neighbors was left unlit, dark and dreary; not only were the curtains drawn shut, but a second layer of drapes was overlaid to block out all traces of sunlight even in the middle of the day. Such was the owner's preference, as well as for her safety.

For all the activity just downstairs, the only source of sound audible in the room was that of shuffling paper. One sheet would flip. A few seconds pass, then again, another turns.

And although the report was long enough to be called a tome, the one reading through it was doing it at such a pace that a single page was open for only a few seconds, the full document less than half an hour.

She was by no means skimming or skipping the contents. If one were to watch the inhuman pace at which her eyes were darting around the page, it would be clear that she was taking in every single detail that had been recorded.

Though the pages themselves were closer to research notes than a formalized proposal or report, both the detail and accuracy contained within were a testament to the author's talent and expertise alike.

By the time she reached the end of the notes, she had recorded and committed the contents to memory; further analysis could wait until a later day. More importantly, the initial analysis and translation had been completed. With these, she could start decrypting and experimenting with the remainder herself.

With practiced dexterity, she flipped back to the front page with a single motion, setting the report back down onto the table. She had no further use for the original.

"Should I say, as expected of a specialist, to figure this out in only two months. The results are perfect, well done." (Tanya)

"I'm not interested in your praise, just compensate me properly. The work is finished." (Keeno)

This much was a normal exchange between Tanya and Keeno, employer and contracted researcher. Twice before she had come to check on the process of the work, and their conversation went much the same each time.

"How about working on our research officially? I'll see about getting your own department." (Tanya)

"Spare me from that, just this is already getting more involved than I should be." (Keeno)

The difference was that this time, the contract had been fulfilled. Tanya made a similar offer each time, but it was rejected all the same. Although her original objective in commissioning this research was now fulfilled, it would be unfortunate to let a valuable card slip out of her reach.

"It's stable employment under a reputable government organization, what's there to complain about… well, fine, I'll leave that for another day. What do you want? Money? Artifacts? Just so you know, while requesting a country to be destroyed is fine, I can't do anything about Momon-dono's work schedule, so give up on that ahead of time." (Tanya)

Though it was barely audible, Tanya could clearly hear the sound of a tongue clicking in disappointment.

"… Forget about it then… In that case, pay with an investigation of your own. Far to the south of the continent, across the desert, there exists, or rather once existed, a kingdom by the name of Inberia. Several centuries ago, an undead calamity turned its entire population into undead. Find the cause and culprit, and destroy them." (Keeno)

_Keeno Fasrith Inberun_

Tanya thought back to the full name she had heard a few times, once from the princess and once from the person herself. It didn't take too much of a leap in logic to figure out why she was interested.

"Inberia… the task itself isn't unreasonable, but if the country is far enough out to not appear on local maps, it's not something I can take care of in a couple months. A conservative estimate would put it at a decade before you see any progress." (Tanya)

"A decade or two after this long won't make a difference. Although, even if I'm the one suggesting it, can you really handle that yourself? From all the research I've done, this isn't some natural phenomenon. Whoever it is, they're capable of creating several million zombies at once. Isn't that already at the level of your Sorcerer King?" (Keeno)

There was a pause. Tanya didn't immediately response, as the question could easily be meant to probe for Ainz's power. Giving any definite answer, positive or negative, could easily be extrapolated to estimate how strong he was by comparison.

"When it comes to that, I'll think of a solution." (Tanya)

"I can only hear that as sheer arrogance." (Keeno)

Another pause, but now Tanya simply shrugged. Level increases aside, getting beaten up by Shalltear on a daily basis made for spectacular training. She had even fought to something that could reasonably be called a draw, albeit only once out of nearly a full hundred rounds. Winning against Ainz would be a stretch, but she was confident in having at least coinflip odds in a serious fight against Demiurge.

Of course, she was under no obligation to explain any of this.

"What's with you, are you actually worried about me?" (Tanya)

"… If you want to get yourself killed, suit yourself, just don't go complaining that you weren't warned afterwards." (Keeno)

This time, it was Keeno who shrugged. Considering the possibility of resurrection magic, it might not be impossible for her to protest to her master after the fact. Still, she recognized the intent behind the joke, so she let the topic drop. Picking up her own research notes to flip through, she continued with a new question.

"Where did you pick this magic language out from, anyway? Not even original magic developers would try breaking spells down to this level, there's just no good reason to. Just how ancient is it?" (Keeno)

This question as well had been brought up several times, though Tanya had only ever explained what the symbols weren't: they weren't related to dwarven runes; they were neither demonic nor draconic; they had nothing to do with the secret language of the Theocracy, whatever that was.

She was mostly certain that nobody else from her world had come here in the few years since the Type-95 was developed, so trying to find connections would have been a waste of time. She had made this much clear already, but now that the first stage of research was complete, Keeno tried asking again.

Though somewhat hesitant, Tanya did reply.

"… The creator was a patriot and researcher whose obsession with magic could rival Fluder Paradyne, a fanatic zealot whose technology briefly reached the realm of divinity, an obsessive perfectionist who never understood the meaning of restraint, and a lunatic dedicated to making every possible effort to blow me up." (Tanya)

"What the hell? Does somebody like that really exist?" (Keeno)

"Unfortunately…" (Tanya)

The room quickly returned to silence. Keeno tried to think through the implications of what she had just heard.

_Just what kind of person could traumatize a demon? Or, were they the memories of her human past… in which case, her actual age at the time would have been younger __still__._

Over the past couple years, Tanya's physical growth had all but halted, to the point where she had gone out of her way to get tested for abnormalities at a military hospital on multiple occasions. They had found nothing wrong with her body, but that didn't change the fact that looking at her, guessing nine would be no less reasonable than twelve or thirteen.

Her misunderstanding turned into sympathy, then to curiosity.

_I'm not surprised that there are others with this kind of past, we found a fair few over the years as adventurers… though nearly all end up incapable and __dysfunctional.__ This world isn't kind to those without ability, but… was she saved by the Sorcerer King? Is that where her loyalty comes from?_

_ What would it have been like, to be saved and grow up under the protection of that kind of being?_

She laughed at herself, albeit only inside her mind. It was a silly thought; the odds of two intelligent undead running into each other like that were beyond astronomical.

Meanwhile, Tanya was looking away, looking away from Keeno, who was busy spacing out.

_Visitors__?_

She was caught somewhat off-guard by a group of four approaching the inn. Unexpectedly, they had gotten that close without her recognizing them.

Because [Detection] was as potent as it was, her perception could reach almost anywhere inside the city walls. Tens of thousands of people were shuffling around in the city, a volume which she had nowhere near the computational capacity to observe simultaneously with her current mastery over the ability.

Additionally, even though the four were notably stronger than the citizens crowding around them, the many high-level undead stationed around the city conversely made it harder for her to spot them. Amid the hundreds of powerful Soul Eaters and Death Knights, a couple relatively powerful humans would inevitably get masked and hidden.

Meeting in a crowded place was a simple way to get ambushed. Having realized her failure, Tanya chided herself. Were it a truly powerful enemy specialized in stealth, she could well get herself assassinated with this kind of carelessness. Granted, it had worked out this time because they weren't hostile, but it was a foolish mistake to make.

"Seems you've got guests." (Tanya)

"Who… oh, has it been a week already? As usual, your information gathering is uncanny." (Keeno)

There was nothing in particular which Tanya needed from them, so she started to leave. Before she could, Keeno cut in again.

"You may as well stick around at this point. Believe it or not, those guys are here to join up with you, after they're done visiting acquaintances in E-Rantel." (Keeno)

Not long after that, a heavy knocking came from behind the door. Less than a second later, without waiting for any response from inside, the lock clicked, and the door was thrown open.

"Yo, we thought you'd be lonely here on your own, so we came to visit… wait, why are there two of you here?" (Gagaran)

The one to push the door open with nearly enough force to tear it off its hinges was Gagaran, followed by Lakyus and the twin assassins, of whom one was still in the process of hiding lock-picking tools behind her back.

"Three months and that's what you come up with?" (Tina)

"She never bothered to visit even though it would only take an hour to teleport." (Tia)

"It has been a while, Keeno; and to you as well, Tanya-sama." (Lakyus)

Each gave their greetings in turn. Aside from a brief handshake with Lakyus, Tanya herself sat back to let the party reunite after a few months apart. If they chose to leak some information in the process, all the better.

"Let some light in, not all of us have darkvision. Not perfect vision at least." (Tina)

Tia didn't hesitate to pull apart the carefully-sealed window, flooding the dark room with bright light from the midday sun.

"That hurts, dammit! What are you trying to do?" (Keeno)

Keeno complained while picking a red cloak off one of the bedposts, which she immediately pulled over her head. Though irritated, the mild burns on her exposed face barely registered as damage to undead without a sense of pain. Within a few seconds, they had already regenerated and closed up.

"So much dust… isn't this a luxury inn?" (Tia)

"No matter the inn, you have to leave once in a while for somebody to come clean…" (Tina)

"She hasn't actually left the room in months, has she?" (Tia)

"Probably not. Are we really surprised at this point?" (Tina)

"When the Granny found her again, she'd already spent forty years in seclusion. Digging her out after only three months barely counts." (Tia)

"Fair enough. Should we come back in another ten years?" (Tina)

"… Let's not. We'd get old while they're exactly the same. Somehow I can't accept that." (Tia)

"… Agreed." (Tina)

The sisters quietly relayed questions and answers between the two of them.

Similar conversations went on for a few minutes before the topic of discussion turned to business. Without warning, Gagaran turned towards Tanya and abruptly asked,

"So you're the one leading the invasion against the Theocracy, right?" (Gagaran)

Perhaps jumping straight in was her way of trying to catch Tanya off-guard and leak something, but all they got out of her was an inscrutable mask.

"We are currently in the process of training allied armies to fight alongside undead from the Sorcerous Kingdom…" (Tanya)

"But that's just a front to prepare for an invasion of the Theocracy, right?" (Gagaran)

"… I can neither confirm nor deny any information about military plans…" (Tanya)

"When the Princess explained the job, she was certain the target would be the Theocracy, and that you would be the one in command for publicity reasons." (Gagaran)

"… Just stop talking already." (Tanya)

Gagaran let out a hearty laugh.

By now, it had already become an open secret. Anybody involved would quickly notice how many of their exercises were about combat against large numbers of magic casters. Rumors about crimes committed by agents of the Theocracy were spreading through the streets. The few living witnesses to the village raids by the fake knights were, after some slight adjustments to their memory, brought to the city to speak of the horrors implanted in their minds.

As this was happening, they intentionally left gaps in the anti-divination defenses around both E-Rantel and the training camp. Over the course of a month, they detected several instances of hostile divination, revealing both the assembled armies, as well as Ainz's absence. He (Pandora's Actor) had not left the castle, and would continue to take no part in the upcoming war. Similarly, Tanya was making a point of only displaying a limited set of abilities while under observation.

"We didn't come here to start trouble over it. Several years ago, shortly after Blue Rose came to have its current members, we encountered a secret unit from the Theocracy in the process of killing off a hidden village of elves. We drove them off, but by the end nearly the entire population was already dead." (Lakyus)

"- And that's why we want to take this chance to go beat them up some, even if it means fighting for you all."

Lakyus stepped in to offer an explanation about their circumstances, followed up by an addendum from Gagaran.

"Personally, I still can't support your logic, not even now. Theoretically, you could argue that the Sorcerous Kingdom could take over the role of protecting weaker species from the Theocracy. However, even if your Sorcerer King and officers are immortal, the Platinum Dragon Lord might come and burn it all to the ground one of these days." (Keeno)

From Keeno's dissent, an unexpected name drew Tanya's attention.

"The Platinum Dragon Lord? You've actually met him?" (Tanya)

"I have, and I can't predict who would win if it seriously came down to it. But, know that if you really do take out the Theocracy then get wiped out yourselves, humanity might well be heading towards extinction. If you ever thought that the unbalance between humans and demihumans was harsh around here, it only gets worse when you leave the Theocracy's area of influence. Even if they do it by killing a few innocents, that may be the lesser evil." (Keeno)

"As usual, I don't get your reasoning. Even the Princess is suggesting we side with them in this case, it seems pretty obvious who'd accept you more easily, what with your condition. Why still defend the Theocracy?" (Gagaran)

"Honestly, I'd like to, which is why I've been giving what support I can. With Momon-sama, that 'Guardian Overseer' Albedo who challenged him in the city, and your Sorcerer King, you could probably drive off the Platinum Dragon Lord with strength to spare, but the story changes if the rest of the True Dragon Lords get involved. They may not like the Theocracy either, but going too far may mean waking them up. I don't mind playing along for now, but I know my limits. If you start that war in heaven, don't blame me when I leave the continent." (Keeno)

"… She says that, but really it's just about being on the same side as her lover." (Tina)

"Why is it that you two can never let me have a serious conversation?" (Keeno)

If Keeno's analysis was correct, they were not enemies Tanya could fight against; she could perhaps hold one off were she in peak condition to fight, but given the choice, retreat would be a far more reliable choice. That said, when two or three guardians were a match, she only had to make them fight in her place.

Demiurge and Albedo would already have been made aware of the threat the Dragon Lords could pose, and prepared some countermeasures against them. Giving her own independent report on the subject had its benefits, but they were not a priority.

The simple fact that they had not already come to attack implied that they were not a single cohesive group, simply a collection of individuals. Should they take action, they would do so one at a time.

In summary, they were likely hostile and probably a threat, but not her immediate concern.

"Your warning is noted. I will look into both matters further; however, we will not alter any plans on account of it." (Tanya)

"Right then, we'll be coming along for a while. For the sake of form, it'll be a commissioned request for Blue Rose to aid in the training? We can't be blamed for getting involved in any conflicts that come after that." (Gagaran)

"I thought I said I wasn't getting involved… though it wouldn't make sense to drop out when it's just training, so fine. Lakyus, take care of the details." (Keeno)

They came to an agreement without needing too much negotiation. Rather, as far as regular rates for adamantite-ranked adventurers were concerned, it was virtually free. From how even their disagreements flowed smoothly towards a resolution, this outcome was already planned out, a foregone conclusion.

On paper it was only to guide the training of some of the human armies, but Blue Rose had officially, if temporarily, transferred their base of operations into the Sorcerous Kingdom.

With 'Red Drop' choosing to return to the Republic during this period of instability, and both 'Darkness' and 'Blue Rose' having relocated to their sovereign, the last symbol of independent force within the Kingdom was removed.

* * *

A/N:

Obligatory notice: Most of you reading this are probably human, so do try to stay healthy.

The action will start in earnest next chapter. That may not come out for a while, don't be surprised by delays.


	12. Volume 2, Intermission

**Intermission**

Finding this place took far longer than expected.

Tanya had heard that the cartography of this new world was something primitive, but only by actually using one of their maps did she understand how bad it was.

When it came to the map of an individual city, one could simply fly above the city to get an accurate view of its layout. Granted, finding a magic caster willing to perform such menial work wasn't always easy, but it paid well for a day's worth of no-risk work, so the job itself wasn't unpopular. These maps wouldn't be publicly circulated, but both the local nobility and country's leadership could be counted on to have a copy.

Alas, charting an entire country's worth of land was nowhere near as straightforward. Without satellites, GPS, or even a reliable compass, expecting any country to have a full world map was ridiculous. For groups of merchants to gradually have put together a relatively accurate map of the surrounding countries and their major cities was impressive.

The relevant territorial area was comparable to half of Western Europe, so in that sense, the accuracy of the map wasn't bad. However, getting finer detail out of even the royal family's maps was apparently too much to hope for.

Case in point: The location of this minor village in the western half of the kingdom was over ten kilometers off its theoretical position, despite being only a couple days away from the capital.

Perhaps nobody had expected somebody to fly according to the exact scale on the map, but when Tanya chose to do exactly that, she find herself above a small forest with nothing of note around her. She doubled back and tried the trip again, this time flying above the roads, only to find the village far from where it was supposed to be, on the opposite side of the path.

At this point, she gave up any remaining preconceptions about what a map was supposed to be, and rather than trusting the directions given to her – an approximate distance in an approximate direction starting from an incorrectly placed village – she climbed straight to an altitude of five kilometers and began to sweep the area, until she finally passed over a building, a single house within a clearing in the woods.

It was at this point, as she approached the clearing, that Tanya swore to herself that she would make better maps to use one of these days, even if she had to take on the role of becoming a satellite to do so.

She quietly landed in front of the cottage: A peculiar building, obviously built to look like a plain house. Looking closely, the construction was too orderly, the walls too clean, not to mention the fact that it was built here, so far from civilization. Let alone entire frontier villages, a single building like this would inevitably receive constant attacks by monsters, yet here stood this serene little homestead.

After giving the building itself a cursory examination, Tanya approached the door, where a cold-faced girl was already waiting, and greeted her with a deep bow.

"Welcome, Tanya-sama, on behalf of the mistress, thank you for taking the time to visit. Please, follow me inside, Renner-sama is already awaiting your arrival."

This girl looked to be no older than eight years old, yet her choice of words instead reflected those of an experienced servant. On the other hand, her delivery lacked any hospitality, frigid and emotionless. Still, her ability to calmly lead the non-human Tanya into the cottage was interesting, considering that a number of adult men would flee in terror as soon as she came into view.

Curiously, she had been waiting since before Tanya arrived. The invitation had reached her two days ago, and she had not gone out of her way to announce her arrival, yet the girl was already waiting when she landed.

Had she been waiting for Tanya to come ever since then?

The girl's servants' clothes, dark-brown hair, and pale skin, were all pristine, without a hint of either dirt or fatigue. On top of that, a glance at her mana revealed a surprisingly sizeable pool, perhaps enough for third-tier magic, truly ridiculous for a girl of that age.

_Is she even human?_

Tanya entertained the idea, at first as a joke, but immediately realized that she couldn't dismiss the possibility; of course, since she could simply get the answer directly from the princess, she stopped her guesswork there.

She followed the maid into the cottage.

As one might expect, the inside matched the outside: Plain and undecorated, but also clean and outfitted with enough magic items to make it clear that this wasn't some ordinary peasant's home.

When considering the amount of wealth the owner could move should she really want to, rather than this being the limit of what she could afford to spend, it seemed far more likely that this rustic building was built to suit her preferences.

Scanning the building, it had an ordinary kitchen, a living room, a few bedrooms, even a basement – Tanya cut her perception as soon as its contents came into view.

"Renner-sama, Tanya-sama has arrived."

At the same time, they arrived in the living room, where Renner stood up from a leather chair to greet her.

"Welcome, Tanya-sama, I hope you found the place without issue. Ah, Seven, please prepare some tea and snacks." (Renner)

The maid, Seven, bowed and left to the next room without a word.

Tanya waited until she was gone, then answered.

"Your choice of neighborhood is inconvenient, to say the least. The map wasn't even close, I had to map out half the forest before I came across it." (Tanya)

"Then it's the perfect location, isn't it? If even you took so long to find it, there shouldn't be too many people coming to interrupt us." (Renner)

"… Don't use me to test something like that…" (Tanya)

Tanya leaked her halfhearted irritation, to which Renner giggled.

"So, just what was that maid?" (Tanya)

"Seven? She's one of the orphans from the war, her parents were both trampled to death during His Majesty's spell." (Renner)

Tanya arched an eyebrow, uncertain of how this related to how the girl ended up in Renner's care, nor her interaction with herself as one of the representatives of that same Sorcerer King, if unofficially.

Seven returned with the refreshments, setting them on the table between the two, then standing off to the side. Without minding her presence, Renner openly continued to explain.

"Thank you. I found her purely by chance, when visits to the orphanages, and… she was just the right kind of broken, so I decided to take her in. Now, she's one of the few who know the whole truth about our two kingdoms." (Renner)

"And, what is she?" (Tanya)

"His Majesty was generous enough to lent me some 'Fallen Seeds', but since I had some left over, I had Seven take some as well. Actually, at that time I was going to take Five as well, but she fell apart halfway through, so now it's just Seven." (Renner)

Halfway through, Tanya glanced over at Seven, who wasn't showing a shred of interest despite her personal affairs becoming the topic of conversation.

"Put simply, I raised a beloved puppy, so I thought to pick up a kitten this time." (Renner)

"Your puppy, huh…" (Tanya)

Tanya's gaze turned towards the nearby door into the basement.

"… I can't understand your hobbies." (Tanya)

"It's fine if you don't." (Renner)

The purity in her wholehearted smile was sorely mismatched against the topic of their discussion.

There was a pause, with the two watching each other, but neither speaking. A few seconds later, Tanya was the one to break it.

"I am fairly busy right now. Did you really call me here just to talk about this?" (Tanya)

"Hm… I have this kind of girls' talk with Albedo-sama all the time, but, nevermind. There's somebody else here who wanted to meet you. Seven." (Renner)

Seven went into the next room, returning a few seconds later with a second woman in tow: An almost emaciated woman, thin and pale as if she had not eaten properly for months, or otherwise some disease was preventing her from doing so.

The very same instant she passed into the room, large tears began to pool in her eyes, and she scrambled forward, dropping to her knees in front of Tanya, her forehead pressed firmly into the ground.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Thank you so much, masters!"

The way this unknown woman had suddenly started rapidly squealing those words while bawling and practically praying in front of Tanya was, frankly, revolting.

"… Who is this? Have we met?" (Tanya)

"Head of Eight Fingers' drug trade, Hilma Cygnaeus. She was one of the people responsible for executing the old plot against the Kingdom. After you arrived, her plans were scrapped." (Renner)

"… And how did that lead to this?" (Tanya)

Taking a deep breath, Hilma answered.

"Thanks to Tanya-sama, we were permitted to discard that plan. It is thanks to you, that we were finally able to get rid of that filthy, disgusting, vulgar, despicable, insane, dimwitted, pathetic, delusional, senseless, incompetent, brainless, miserable, arrogant, petty, lustful, intolerable, unreasonable, immature, shameful, vain, incoherent, repugnant, erratic, empty-headed IDIOT! Ahhh, you gave us all hope when we learned he had been turned to ash! Please, if you have the chance, pass on our most sincere thanks, from all of us, to Jaldabaoth-sama for exterminating him on our behalf!" (Hilma)

Desperate thanking quickly turned into fanatical rambling, her head now rubbing against the floor as she spoke. Despite the fact that they had been the ones made to suffer as a result of the plan to begin with, them now being provided the 'opportunity' to move away from that misery had basically turned them into zealots.

For the first time in months, they truly celebrated. Their pleading for relief from idiot-handling had been answered. When they first heard the news, for just a moment, they could forget the haunting torture and celebrate.

In other words, it was classical fraud. The Eight Fingers executives who served out of fear for their life, would now do so out of adoration for the Sorcerer King's generosity, for so long as their services were required.

Even if, in a corner of their brains, they understood the the trick being played on them, this little mercy made all their efforts worthwhile.

With time, their criminal activities in the Kingdom would slowly be decreased. Blame for the corruption of the past would fall on the declining remnants of the nobility, whereas credit for the improvement in security would naturally be given to the Sorcerous Kingdom's patrols.

After that, the organization could turn their focus on gathering information and finding talent to recruit into the Sorcerous Kingdom, which was even now suffering from a lack of capable manpower. Nonetheless, their work would never end, since it was necessary for the condition of the Kingdom to remain worse than E-Rantel and any other lands controlled directly by Nazarick.

However, Tanya's current specialization was in military affairs. The future of the Kingdom's criminal underworld no longer had any relation to her.

"Raise your head. I was simply an actor in another's stageplay, those plans were not mine. If you wish, please direct your thanks to Albedo-sama instead, when you next meet." (Tanya)

Just as an HR department was not there to listen to customer complaints, she simply had to forward this fanatic to somebody else.

"That's enough, Hilma. Go back to your work now, we'll send you back to the capital later." (Renner)

Having picked up on Tanya's intention, Renner dismissed Hilma. Upon receiving an order, her previous attitude vanished like it had been a fantasy, almost scurrying out of the room in her haste to comply.

Unperturbed by this entire meeting, Seven continued quietly serving another round of refreshments to the two girls as Hilma departed.

A peaceful break like this was nice, though finding an excuse to take one was rarely possible with Tanya's hectic daily schedule. On the other hand, this princess had managed to distance herself from her responsibilities in the capital, making a quiet life for herself in this cottage, just her and her two 'pets'.

"I really envy you, you know." (Tanya)

Renner tilted her head, unsure of the context behind the comment. Glancing at her maid,

"Do you want her?" (Renner)

"You know that isn't what I meant… You betrayed your country, set up tens of thousands of people to die in the last war, plotted to have half the nobility in the kingdom massacred, then purged a majority of the remainder. Despite all of that, rather than assassins lining up at your doorstep, you got those same people to love you, and live in peace here. Just how do you do it?" (Tanya)

"Is it so difficult? Our dealings are unknown to them, those who lost family on the Katze Plains would blame His Majesty, and those noble families were slain by Jaldabaoth, then stripped of their titles and punished for their crimes by Raeven, as he took control of the provisional government for himself. What reason would anybody possibly have to want _me_, a mere ornament for the crown, dead?" (Renner)

"Hah, you make it sound effortless, to have actually executed it so cleanly in reality…" (Tanya)

It was a feat impossible for anybody except Renner herself to accomplish, as it depended not only on her incredible intelligence, but the innocuous image she had carefully cultivated over the last decade. Finally, add in the sudden appearance of Ainz, then Demiurge learning and taking interest in her.

Had Demiurge not approached her, or otherwise not have appeared in this world, she would have needed to conspire against her eldest brother Barbro to place Prince Zanack on the throne. Were he uncooperative, perhaps she would instead have chosen to get the Empire involved in order to buy herself a better deal with them.

The princess in question could probably find a way to break through regardless of the particular circumstances, although it was uncertain whether any of them would have placed her in as convenient a standing.

"It really is nothing special. I don't need a kingdom for myself, nor anybody else's recognition. Personally, I think it would be easier if I had your power, then I wouldn't need to play these games. I could have gone off to another country, or even another continent, and we could live there just like this. If you want peace, wouldn't that be the obvious solution?" (Renner)

"Humans are social animals. Few of us can live alone like that, and while I could probably survive by doing that, I would hardly call that living." (Tanya)

"Hmmm… If that's how you see yourself, there's nothing else for me to say. Do you really have so many enemies with His Majesty personally backing you?" (Renner)

"There aren't, or at least, there shouldn't be, but there's always a few lunatics out there. Having even just a single one is enough for me to wear armor and raise protective barriers while sleeping. Aside from that, no combat situation is ever completely safe. As it stands, the preparations are already underway, I can hardly back out now. I doubt whether I could just retire and find a desk job here so easily…" (Tanya)

"Once it starts, the consequences will quickly spread to each country. These next few months will be busy… just when I was getting to the good part…" (Renner)

Renner's face shifted into a childish pout, though with her features, even that expression carried a beauty to it.

"Pfft, Ahahahaha!" (Seven)

Seeing that look on her, Seven fell to the ground laughing.

"It doesn't fit you at all!" (Seven)

Her previous mask had shattered, and she was now rolling around on the floor, laughing like a girl her age, caring about the social position of neither her owner nor their guest. Seeing this reaction, Renner's lips curled in a show of mock irritation, which only served to amuse Seven further.

"The first time I saw her, when I was making rounds to the orphanages in the capital, the first and only words she spoke to me that day were, "Princess, you're a terrible actor," then ignored me the entire time. Can you believe her?" (Renner)

"And you took her in for that?" (Tanya)

Renner sincerely smiled and replied,

"Have you ever kept a cat?" (Renner)

"… I really can't understand your hobbies…" (Tanya)

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the Re-Estize Kingdom…

"She really did push the entire government on me and run away… that monster."

Raeven, having gone from Marquis, to Prime Minister, and now a sovereign of sorts, all in the course of a year, once again grieved about his sleepless nights.


	13. Volume 2, Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Part 1**

"What kind of training exercise was that supposed to be? You seriously call that torture training!?"

The outburst came from Captain Hansen, who had rushed in immediately upon returning to the camp. He was followed in by Leinas, though having missed the chance to stop him before he could reach, she stopped with a mix of dejection and resignation.

Although he had rushed in suddenly to start yelling, it wasn't enough for Tanya to even look up from her desk, as she continued to scan over two brick-like tomes.

"I was curious about what was so important that you would barge in here to yell about, but is that all? Are you ready to accept your punishment for that?" (Tanya)

After a delay of several seconds, he finally earned a bored response. This only served to fan his anger. Ignoring all else, he continued to yell.

"You dropped my men in the middle of the frozen mountains with only their swords and armor! They had their fingers frozen and their arms torn off by monsters on that mountain!" (Hansen)

"Just that much is normal training, of course. They properly made it back in more or less one piece, the rest can be healed easily enough." (Tanya)

"Are you insane? Even if you heal those injuries, three-quarters of the knights are trying to either go home or retire!" (Hansen)

"You're the one who said your men were elites. To cry about a few missing arms, you call yourselves men?" (Tanya)

"This isn't something humans can handle!" (Hansen)

"I properly reduced the difficulty to the level of humans, neither the dragon attacks nor my simulated artillery barrage made it into the final plan. The men from the Kingdom weren't complaining, while the ones Neia brought seemed more excited than anything, to say nothing of the goblins and the rest. Why is it that you're the only one here?" (Tanya)

"That's, ridiculous, we can't be the only ones who…" (Hansen)

He looked over towards Leinas, though going by her unchanging face, she didn't share his indignation at the situation.

"Leinas." (Tanya)

"Yes!" (Leinas)

"How was the training expedition for the group you led?" (Tanya)

"Coincidentally, one of the royal knights I led had previous experience with a similar mission. As such, we were able to handle the cold without too much difficulty. We had few encounters with monsters while in the mountain, so injuries were minimal. However, from the other commanders' reports, our group was the exception. Aside from mine, only those squads which were mixed with the Holy Kingdom did well. The rest were decimated, and would be incapable of combat if not for the healing you provided. The Captain who was attacked by an Ice Boar could be said to have the worst luck." (Leinas)

"I see. Perhaps it would have been better to leave the dragons in after all. From the results, would it be appropriate to mark the cause of the failure as poor personnel selection on the part of the emperor?" (Tanya)

"His Majesty wouldn't-" (Hansen)

"… What else do you expect me to call you?" (Tanya)

He didn't get the chance to finish another line before he was dismissed.

"This is a waste of time. Whatever temporary promotion put you in charge, I'm revoking it, return to your own unit. Leinas, either take his position yourself or let his next-in-command do it. You can send away the ones trying to quit, they aren't worth the supplies." (Tanya)

"Are you sure? They may not have handled the mountains well, but those knights are still a capable group. Sending them away after just that much would be a loss." (Leinas)

"It's an issue of adaptability. Going just by results, it's clear that lizardmen vulnerable to cold wouldn't do well, but while they hunted pelts to wear, those knights kept wearing their steel armor even as the metal froze to their skin. I need soldiers, not single-minded knights. Besides, if they break this easily, they'll just fall apart as soon as the battle plan falls apart, that is to say at first contact with the enemy." (Tanya)

"Understood." (Leinas)

"Good. Don't bother me with this again. And Captain, worrying about your men is one thing, but recall that this is a military organization. Learn some self-control or leave now. If you still can't figure it out, I'll court-marshal and shoot you myself." (Tanya)

Soon after, Tanya was once again left alone. Shortly after confirming both of them had left, she picked the tomes up and stowed them back into her inventory. She stood up and called a subordinate.

"Hanzo." (Tanya)

"Yes." (Hanzo)

One of the invisible ninja-like monsters revealed itself, kneeling in the corner of the room.

"How far has your infiltration of the Theocracy's holy city progressed?" (Tanya)

"They have evidently begun preparing for an invasion starting several weeks ago. We were able to infiltrate minor meetings and document stores, but those held by their heads of state cannot be accessed. Nine individuals they consider to be elites have been confirmed, of which only one can be considered a threat above an average orichalcum. We could not proceed further than the second basement floor without risking detection. Would you permit us to proceed?" (Hanzo)

"Yes, prepare to do so. I will force a meeting with them. I expect they'll pull guards away for it, so see if you can get further than that. Prioritize locating any other powerful enemies, but do not engage in combat." (Tanya)

"As you wish." (Hanzo)

"Now then, let's start by spreading some discontent." (Tanya)

* * *

**Part 2**

Ninety-nine out of one hundred people would describe the Holy City of the Slane Theocracy as an architectural marvel. As the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful of the three human nations in the immediate area.

If the Imperial capital of Arwintar is a modern metropolis built with the latest in magic technological development, then the Holy City is a sacred relic representing the great lost magic of the past.

There was a stark contrast visible between the inner city with its massive stone walls – built centuries ago during the golden age of the Six Gods – and the outer city, which was built, renovated, and rebuilt several times in the decades since. Despite their antiquity, it was those mansions at the core of the Holy City which stood firm no matter how many hundreds of years had passed, a testament to the skill and power of the gods, who were said to have built it by hand.

Never in its long history had the inner wall been breached, and the pristine jewel of a city within untouched by threats of any kind. Over the years, a number of priests and bishops said to their followers that those indestructible walls could stand even against the wrath of the ancient Dragon Lords – though that claim had neither been tested, nor would the official representatives of the Theocracy dare to say something so arrogant, lest they actually provoke one of them into trying it out.

And at the very core of the circular walls stood the greatest of the gods' constructions: The Cathedral Tower.

Rising to a height of sixteen stories, the immense white spire was clearly visible from any point in the surrounding capital. No human alive knew by what technique or magic the tower could be built. Some legends even wrote that the whole tower had been dropped from the heavens by the gods, so that it might serve as their residence in the mortal world. Only gods, dragons, and perhaps the eldest of the elves knew the truth behind its origin.

Contrary to popular belief, the Cathedral Tower was neither lavishly decorated nor strongly fortified. If the comparison had to be made, the tower was an office building, with floors upon floors of workspaces and meeting rooms. Certainly, the furniture in these rooms was worth a fortune in its own right, but it was much more a practical collection than gaudy finery. Few would look upon it and imagine such a domain was meant for their gods, instead of a particularly wealthy monarch.

Truthfully, the innermost sanctum was not in the sixteen stories of the tower, but rather hidden in the three underground floors below. It was these which housed the true heart of the Slane Theocracy.

The first basement floor was directly accessible through a passage in the Cathedral Tower, hidden not on the ground floor but the next floor above, moving down directly through a pillar to the secret below. Fewer than three hundred individuals – mostly Cardinals, Archbishops, and the elite Six Scriptures – knew of its location.

With the greatest of barriers and defenses created by the Six Gods, it was here that the heads of state met to discuss truly important matters. Not even 'Thousand Mile Astrologer' could hope to scry the contents of conversations which took place within these walls.

The expansive first basement floor was made up of several rooms: One displayed maps of worlds unknown, another had an entire wall created out of a stained glass window, which was lit by sunlight despite being underground. Each was mystical in its own way, but most famous among them was the central chamber, which held nothing but a large round table.

For reasons unknown, this chamber was known as the 'Gilded Hall', despite being the plainest by far. Although vast, not a single speck of gold could be found no matter where one looked in the room. Many theorized about the origin of the name, but much like the construction of the tower itself, the secret behind why the Six Gods had given it such a name was lost through the centuries.

Perhaps the written records which had survived since then held the truth, but unfortunately not a single person capable of reading their language had lived through the great war against the Eight Greed Kings. With the writings undecipherable, only the name itself had passed mostly intact through centuries of oral transmission to the present day.

Going even further underground, the two floors below were a labyrinth filled with an uncountable number of traps and secrets. In these depths, immensely powerful archangel sentinels roamed as if they were common monsters, repelling any and all trespassers. Not even the Pontifex Maximus himself could travel unharassed; the sole exception were the three god-kin, whose presence was completely ignored by these guardians. As such, not even the current residents of the Cathedral Tower could honestly claim to know even half of its secrets.

In the furthest reaches of this citadel, an impressive treasury could be found, a most holy sanctuary filled with the treasures left behind by the Six Gods. Since any defender weaker than the archangels would be worthless, only a single semi-permanent stood watch by the stairs to the second floor: the strongest trump card of the Theocracy, the undefeated special seat of the Black Scripture, known only as 'Certain Death'.

Even more than the underground of the tower itself, her existence was a secret known to fewer still, truly characteristic of a secret ace. Being centuries older than anybody in the human government, only an outline of her past was known to them. Some honestly believed that her very name was lost to history, forgotten by herself in her pursuit of revenge.

But, all that was irrelevant in the face of her absolute, overwhelming, unfathomable, transcendent strength. She was the ultimate guardian of humanity, but precisely because of that, she – and the divine equipment she was outfitted with – could not be moved for anything less than a world-ending threat.

The issue currently facing the executives assembled in the Gilded Hall could be argued to be exactly that.

The highest-ranked Pontifex Maximus.

The Cardinal of Fire, Berenice Nagua Sandeni.

The Cardinal of Water, Ginedine Delan Gwerfe.

The Cardinal of Wind, Dominic Ire Partouche.

The Cardinal of Earth, Raymond Zag Lauransan.

The Cardinal of Light, Ivon Jasna Dracrowa.

The Cardinal of Darkness, Maximilian Oreio Lagier.

The Chief Judge; The Head Legislator; The First Minister; The Grand Marshall; The Head of the Research Institute.

Twelve people comprising the highest authority of the Slane Theocracy rarely gathered all together in one conference like this – under normal circumstances.

Meeting twice in the course of a year was already rare, but they had already met once when the Black Scripture was defeated by the vampire, Honyopenyoko, a second time immediately following the Empire's declaration of war, and a third time two weeks after its devastating end.

With the turn of the new year, these conferences had gone from yearly to monthly, biweekly, and now weekly at the very least.

Their unease was apparent from the moment they sat down around the table, skipping the cleaning ritual which would have prefaced each meeting only a month prior. Following a quick prayer to the Six Gods, then promptly jumped into business.

The first topic was the same as ever:

"Raymond, are there any updates from 'Thousand Mile Astrologer'?" (Ivon)

"Since last week, the last of the groups sent off to the mountains returned. Observing the camp has gotten difficult, but she's been watching the entrance to see that they're bringing in massive quantities of both supplies and ammunition. Worst case, they're ready to march." (Raymond)

"And the king himself?" (Ivon)

"… Nothing new. She caught a few glimpses of the Sorcerer King, he still hasn't moved." (Raymond)

A collective sigh of relief went out from everybody except Raymond and Ivon. It was nearly the same news as they had heard each week, but continuing to hear that the Sorcerer King himself was continuing to rest at E-Rantel was a comfort in itself, no matter how powerful the army might be.

"So he truly is exhausted and still recovering from all the magic he used in the Holy Kingdom… getting information out of the paladins was worth the risk." (Ginedine)

The old cardinal summarized the conclusion they had reached after carefully contacting some of the surviving paladins from the Holy Kingdom. In exchange for a considerable amount of monetary aid, they were able to hear enough stories about the Sorcerer King to hear that particular tidbit, the weakness which had resulted in him retreating from the first fight with Jaldabaoth.

"If not for that Momon, we could have taken the chance to control him with the Supreme Treasure… why has he not taken the chance to stab the monster in the back himself?" (Dominic)

Cardinal Dominic made his frustration known. Not only had the person who had been meant to protect the people of E-Rantel failed to turn against the Sorcerer King in his moment of weakness, but they had instead gotten closer. It had gotten to the point where Momon leading the army against them had been a serious possibility, but they had been spared from that as well.

"If he tried and failed, it might well mean the death of every single human being in the city. Anybody who could fight with that weight on their shoulders would already be inhuman." (Berenice)

They could understand his reasons, but knowing didn't change the fact that the more time went on, the closer the situation approached to the worst possible case, that is to say a full alliance between Momon and the Sorcerer King.

Between the mysterious explosion which killed the Miko Princess, the annihilation of the Sunlight Scripture, the loss of the Crown of Wisdom and its still-missing thief, and the untimely deaths of three members of the Black Scripture against the vampire, the Theocracy's elite forces were irrecoverably crippled, and with the worst possible timing. The best plan they had required finishing the war against the Elves, then quietly recovering for a decade, but that door had quickly been shut when the Empire and Kingdom capitulated in short order.

"… If we do nothing, we will certainly be crushed, yet there's no guarantee that we have the means to resist on our own… how many men have we gathered thus far?" (Raymond)

"Eighty thousand, spread throughout the cities. This is the limit of what I can do without making it obvious that a war is on the horizon. Once the day comes, I can add another sixty thousand within a week. My worry is, all but perhaps one thousand would be no more effective than children in front of Death Knights. On paper, we outnumber them ten-to-one, but I can't see this as anything but hopeless without the God-kin taking part." (Marshall)

For the first time, the Grand Marshall spoke up, but the well-trained semi-professional army they could raise would inevitably become mere cannon fodder. Recruiting as many as he had had been a herculean task, but in the end those numbers just made him feel hopeless.

"Even without them coming for us, the people are crying for war. At least we could avoid a border with the Republic, but that excuse is impossible with the Sorcerous Kingdom. The more time passes, the more they cry for us to save the people of E-Rantel and the Kingdom. At times like this, I envy the Emperor, who could make it through just by bowing down and begging for mercy… if we tried that, it would just mean that our replacements declare war a year later." (Maximilian)

Another collective sigh spread through the room, except this one was a sign of disappointment. Surrender had been seriously proposed more than once, but in practice it was impossible on more than one level. Not only would it require trusting undead to rule over them peacefully, but the very citizens they were sworn to protect would revolt against them for trying to do their jobs.

"Searching for the other Dragon Lords was a hopeless endeavor, while the Platinum Dragon Lord thinks both sides his enemies and would happily watch as we destroy each other…" (Ivon)

"The retired Black Scripture are a solid addition, but they can neither compare to the active members, nor do we even have the equipment to field them at peak strength…" (Dominic)

There had been hope in several such plans a few months ago, but once actually put into action, the results ranged from dubious success to outright failure. The sole saving grace was that the Elves were falling back to their capital, no longer in possession of the manpower to continue their guerilla attacks. Were the Theocracy to pull back now, there was little chance for pursuit, so a two-front war could be avoided.

"Where do we go from here? If we could at least get the time to-" (Raymond)

A heavy knock came from the large silver door.

"Report." (Raymond)

Raymond wasted no time asking for information. Only a couple people would come knocking here, and somebody who chose to interrupt this meeting would undoubtedly have a vital reason for doing so.

The heavy door smoothly slid open, revealing a young, androgynous man. All eyes turned towards him, as well as the armor he was wearing. It was surprising enough for him to come personally deliver news, but more surprising still for him to do so after having prepared for combat.

He, the first seat and captain of the Black Scripture was arguably even busier than the cardinals themselves, especially now when he was training the replacement members.

"There is a matter requiring your immediate attention. A demon claiming to be from the Sorcerous Kingdom has arrived at the front of the Cathedral Tower. She has requested a meeting with each of you, by name." (First Seat)

The room quickly broke into a commotion. It was impossible for these twelve members to be named, with this timing, by coincidence.

"Is it in the waiting room now? How should we best handle it?" (Ivon)

"No. According to what I was able to get out of the bishop who she spoke to, she refused, saying, 'It's such a nice day, and this looked like such a beautiful city, so I will do some sightseeing while I have the chance.'" (First Seat)

Those who understood the situation immediately paled. Several tried to speak, but Dominic was the first to get clear words out.

"Are you saying that demon is currently parading through the streets of our Holy City?" (Dominic)

"I have not confirmed, but that is what her words imply." (First Seat)

"Find her immediately! No matter what happens, do not allow her to provoke an attack!" (Raymond)

Raymond shouted orders. Nominally the role should have fallen to the Pontifex Maximus, but nobody objected to Raymond's words. Despite his young age, he was the near-unanimous favorite to succeed the post, so the aging pope let him take over to gain experience and legitimacy.

Following that command, the first seat rushed out of the room.

"Dammit! This is too soon. Prepare the public conference on the third floor, we must at least earn a few more weeks, no matter what it takes." (Raymond)

* * *

Tanya sat back on a park bench, perfectly still. With her eyes closed and metallic tail pinned behind her back, she appeared to be a somewhat pale-skinned foreign girl. Only a short distance away, a trio of children were playing with the elementary magic one of them had been taught, making use of it to construct a crude model of the city by molding the earth into shape.

At one point they tried bringing her over to join in the game, but quickly gave up when she didn't respond. She was asleep, and most likely couldn't use magic, or wouldn't be interested in what they were doing.

They lost interest in simply building, then started alternatively building up the tower and kicking it down, merrily enjoying the day.

It was a peaceful scene, a veritable powder keg as far as the soldiers riding through the city were concerned. As they only had a vague physical description to work off, the lack of the commotion they were expecting to hear conversely made it harder to find her.

_"__The entrance is on the second floor. There should be a group exiting through it now."_ (Tanya)

Tanya silently relayed her observation of the tower through a [Message].

_"Understood. We have sighted the group, and will pass behind them as soon as the last exits."_ (Hanzo)

The squad leader Hanzo responded in kind.

_"__There is some barrier blocking me from observing the underground floors, in a missing volume of fifty meters. If they are the same height as the tower's floors, expect three basement floors. Proceed with extreme caution."_ (Tanya)

No reply came, as the Hanzo she was communicating with passed below the ground level at around the same time.

Ironically, the barriers designed to obfuscate the secret floors created an obvious missing space which all but guaranteed that there was something hidden underneath the tower. Entering an unknown space was always a risk, but everything they had known thus far pointed them to expect that nothing here could both detect and kill the Hanzos, whose levels were in the 80s.

They were likely capable of killing everything in their path, but as they were the few monsters available to her of the 'too expensive to lose' category, there was no need to take the risk. They were ordered to retreat with the intelligence they gathered at any sign of real danger.

In all likelihood, they would do their job without issue. Her concern was the meeting to come. Coming to any agreement was extremely unlikely, but it was worth trying to avoid the war, in the event they were actually willing to unconditionally surrender from the start.

Ideally they would try bringing out the World-Class item right now, at which point she could just kill everybody in the room and seize it, making her job to come much easier. But, reality was unlikely to work out so easily.

She turned her attention to the young man approaching her. Given how much of her mana she was currently allowing to leak, being found was only a matter of time, though the soldiers riding past evidently couldn't detect it.

Surprisingly, he appeared to barely be halfway through his teens below the fake face he wore, though powerful youths were hardly a rarity in this world.

More importantly, he was powerful. He was the first human she had seen who she would not have been able to overpower with raw physical strength alone, and although his equipment seemed weaker than hers, it was a remarkably close comparison.

Though she wasn't making any effort to hide her presence, simply being able to recognize her as abnormal was worthy of praise. She bumped her analysis of him up by a notch.

There was no question that this was the first of the powerful individuals identified by the Hanzos, the so-called god-kin.

"Excuse me. Are you the envoy sent by the Sorcerous Kingdom?"

"Well spotted. And you are?" (Tanya)

"The Cardinals are prepared to see you. Please follow me to the Cathedral Tower."

Predictably, those words drew attention from the surroundings. By appearing here, his identity as a member of one of the secret Six Scriptures was effectively blown, but maintaining that cover had long since ceased to be a priority for them.

Tanya slowly opened her eyes, looking at the man with a gentle smile. At the same time, she stood off the bench and let the tail stretch out behind her. Gasps of terror echoed around them, with children and adults alike hastily retreating at the sight.

"Of course, after you." (Tanya)

* * *

The room which Tanya was led into next was already filled with the high-ranked executives she had named; surprisingly, not just one or two, but all twelve of them together, thirteen counting the one who had led her in. He exchanged no words with the others, but continued to stand by the door behind her, spear at his side.

From his position, he could try blocking the door, were he ordered to do so. On the other hand, standing opposite the others meant he would be unable to act as a guard, should the need arise. Most likely, at least a few of the twelve were confident enough in their martial ability to not require a guard, at least not under normal circumstances.

In her eyes, the twelve together didn't add up to the one behind her. With that being said, her purpose here was not to fight.

At first, the exchange was that of simple pleasantries. Starting from the most formally dressed old man in the center – the Pontifex Maximus – each of them gave a painstakingly slow introduction. Going down the ranks, they spent the better part of a minute per person listing titles and territories.

She didn't particularly mind stalling for time since she was still trying to create a distraction for the Hanzos, but found it difficult to understand why they would choose to do the same, being the organizers.

As she watched, the cardinals repeatedly exchanged glances with each other. For the most part, they were looking at neither the current speaker nor herself, instead collectively focusing their attention on one of the other cardinals at a time.

They were listening, only not to the speaker.

Getting an idea, Tanya began to spread her perception throughout the room. The mass of intertwining enchantments and barriers around the tower added some difficulty to the task, but she was nonetheless able to filter those out and locate the ones she had expected to find.

From there, she started digging into the web of magic spread throughout. It might have been a form she had not seen before, but there were enough similarities to the spells she did learn to work off of.

By largely ignoring the superfluous introductions in favor of concentrating on decoding the magic, she was able to figure out the rest in only a few minutes.

Upon tapping into the web, an older woman's voice started flowing directly into Tanya's head.

_"-__ger confirmed from her description. Without a doubt, she's the same one."_

At the same time, each of the men momentarily glanced at the sole woman sitting to the right of the Pontifex.

Tanya resisted the urge to break into a malicious smile.

_So magic for this exists, after all. U__nencrypted communication is dangerous, you know. Never know when somebody might intercept your strategic __discussion__._

She began listening in on the hidden discussion between the cardinals.

_"__The general was sent to personally negotiate with us, are they dangling her as bait trying to get us to start the war?__"_ (Maximilian)

_"__It could be a double with the same appearance. The aura of a common __low-ranked __demon is __more __fear-inducing than this.__"_ (Dominic)

_ "__Wait, Dominic, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Remember the battle in the Kingdom's capital? There's no chance somebody who can win against Jaldabaoth, weakened or not, could possibly be a common demon. It's safer to start with the assumption that the two are equal."_ (Ivon)

_ "__Ridiculous. If the Sorcerer King had minions who could fight evenly with the Jaldabaoth, he would never risk going to the Holy Kingdom himself. __Besides, why would something that powerful choose to serve another? __At worst, we assume it's one of those 'maid demons' the paladins spoke of, ranked 150 by the adventurers' system, which was able to ambush the Demon Emperor with the Sorcerer King's direction."_ (Dominic)

_ "If that's true, h__alf the Black Scripture could deal with __her__, __provided we can get her away from the swarm of Death Knights and Soul Eaters. She's here as bait precisely because taking the first strike here is so tempting."_ (Raymond)

_"__We cannot. The Undead would not bother with tedious diplomacy without reason, simply invade with the forces they already possess. Perhaps us being the aggressor is one condition for sending Momon against us, or a ploy to turn the Holy Kingdom into our enemies. Frustrating as it may be, we must give them the initiative.__"_ (Ginedine)

_"__Agreed. Even if we could win the first battle, it's all for naught if we sacrifice the war to do so. At very least, how much time does the Black Scripture need to recover?__"_ (Raymond)

For the first time, a question was directed to somebody outside the cardinals. Most likely having already expected this question, the captain answered without delay.

_"Two more months for Cedran and Beaumarchais to recover from resurrection, six for __the new members. As for __Kaire-sama's replacement, __she is currently capable of making use of the Supreme Treasure, but only for establishing temporary control__; __its full power is beyond her.__"_ (First Seat)

_"__Then at very least, we are not without cards. Still, even surviving such a war, the destruction would cost us centuries of progress. If there is still a chance to avoid it, we should sacrifice what we must.__"_ (Raymond)

Confirmation, at long last. Unfortunately, the introductions ended there, and with them the flow of information from the secret discussion likewise went quiet.

Raymond raised one hand, and with the room silent, started speaking.

"Now then, should we proceed to business? What is it that you came here to do?" (Raymond)

Tanya shrugged.

"There's no need to be so tense, Raymond. I do have a bit of business for later, but can't we start with a chat about politics?" (Tanya)

Nobody said anything in response, but confusion echoed through the telepathy. She wanted to commend their ability to maintain a straight face, as expected of lifetime politicians.

"See, I've taken some time to read up on the history of this country." (Tanya)

She pulled out a pair of tomes, sliding them across the table.

"Wha-" (Maximilian)

The books stopped directly in front of Maximilian, whose astonishment leaked. He was predictably surprised, seeing as they had been 'borrowed' from his private collection.

_"__What are those books?__"_ (Raymond)

_"__I put this away just last week, when- no, the textbook is one thing, but that notebook was hidden away, even I haven't gotten far in translating it, just how-__"_ (Maximilian)

In contrast to Raymond's calm question, Maximilian was letting his thoughts leak to the others, all while darting his eyes between Tanya and the books.

"The diary in particular was interesting. At first I thought this disorganization was a result of six people with no experience in governance creating a country, but they were more grounded than expected. It's you, or rather your ancestors, who strayed from the proper system to get to today." (Tanya)

"You dare call-" (Dominic)

"Dominic, please wait. _She is trying to provoke us, be careful."_ (Raymond)

The old cardinal started leaking hostility at the implied insult towards the Six Gods, but he was stopped by Raymond, who privately added a second warning.

_"Maximilian, what's in that __diary__?"_ (Raymond)

_"One of the notebooks of the God of Light, nearly all untranslatable. It must be a bluff."_ (Maximilian)

"You have six sects and three branches of government so clearly separated in the legal code, yet you seem to have completely missed the point behind the separation of power. The constitution they originally wrote was fine, until it was rewritten by generation after generation of cardinals, becaming what it is today, having lost half the meaning behind universal rights… then there's the public representation which somehow became an assembly of priests, then just bishops writing up laws… the judiciary becoming restricted to priests… compared to the government they were trying to imitate, it really is disappointing to see what you let it turn into once there was nobody who understood it left to direct you." (Tanya)

"What are you implying?" (Maximilian)

"I'm sure you've already realized it; six people who never planned for their own deaths left gaps, six gaps which you filled with six sects and six cardinals, whose powers and responsibilities are ambiguous but nonetheless above the three branches, as they were when they lived. Simply put, the system would have worked had you not turned it into a theocracy after they were killed off." (Tanya)

"After the defeat of the Six Great Gods at the hands of the Eight Greed Kings, the sects were expanded to fill the vacancy, but the government did not fundamentally change as a result." (Maximilian)

At this point, the discussion shifted into Maximilian's specialty as an active historian and former member of the judiciary, so he began to dominate the debate.

"Our Slane Theocracy is and always was a theocracy." (Maximilian)

"There's a clear difference between the two. They tried to direct you, but the position was never intended to be permanent. To begin with, half of them didn't even like being seen as gods, they made that very clear in the writings they left behind. At least, they tried to, but either that was lost to time and language barriers, or at some point those in power decided the legitimacy of their position was too important to risk." (Tanya)

She paused with that accusation, but continued before Maximilian could respond.

"That's how we come to you, the hypocrites who protect humanity by slaughtering villages of our innocent citizens." (Tanya)

With those words, the cardinals in the room froze. Not purely by their own volition, but rather by the wave of bloodlust being sent in their direction by the small demon. Several broke out in cold sweat, while the man behind her began to ready his spear.

"The region near E-Rantel is, and always was the domain of the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown. How does the Slane Theocracy intend to atone for this blatant, unprovoked belligerence?" (Tanya)

"… what are your demands?" (Raymond)

Raymond got the question out. Per their plans, as long as they were reasonable, the concessions they were willing to make were considerable.

"The complete and permanent dissolution of the church, to be replaced by secular authority from the Sorcerous Kingdom; disarmament of all military forces, public, private, and secret; unconditional investigative and judicial authority for the Sorcerous Kingdom to find all responsible, and see justice done." (Tanya)

_"__From the start, they never intended to negotiate.__"_ (Ginedine)

The elder voiced the thought each of them had immediately upon hearing her demands. Even one of those would be an oppressive requirement to enforce on a vassal, but all together they would completely strip the Slane Theocracy of any sovereignty it might have.

"Impossible." (Pontifex)

"I see. I came seeking a peaceful resolution, but evidently you have no interest in reconciliation. How truly unfortunate." (Tanya)

She stood, speaking with a truly devastated-looking expression as she scanned the room.

"In the name of His Majesty, the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick, the Baharuth Empire, and the Re-Estize Kingdom hereby declare war against the Slane Theocracy." (Tanya)

* * *

The Captain leapt into action, aiming for the first strike. He himself was well aware that attacking an opponent's defenseless back was a despicable act, but it was no time for honor.

"Magic Seal-" (Tanya)

Only a moment before his spear struck his target, she muttered those words without turning to face him.

Three large orange circles appeared in front of her, arranged as a triangle, with each facing a different direction.

Recognizing the danger, he aborted his attack, turning to jump between her and the cardinals.

Whether it was skill or intuition, pulling back before she said the word 'release' made her abort her own attack. Indeed, three maximized [Explosion] might not quite have been fatal for him, but it was far too more than he could defend against in that instant.

In other words, everybody else in the room had already become a hostage to be used against him.

"As a diplomat, I didn't intend to personally begin hostilities, but I may be forced to retaliate if attacked." (Tanya)

She began calmly walking towards the door. Without being interrupted, she left the tower.

The tension in the room did not calm until several minutes later. When the captain finally lowered his spear, Raymond asked him a question, which carried a hint of depression.

"Can you win against that?" (Raymond)

"I cannot for certain say… but alone, I think not. In the worst case, that magic might have incapacitated me on the spot. But… something of that degree could not defeat 'Certain Death', that I can assure you." (First Seat)

* * *

**Part 3**

Tanya returned to her base to find the Hanzo squad leader who had already arrived and was waiting for her return. She addressed the kneeling Hanzo.

"I noticed you retreated shortly after entering the underground section, what did you find in there?" (Tanya)

"My apologies, Tanya-sama, but you have been recalled. Please proceed to Nazarick immediately." (Hanzo)

"Hm? What's this all of a sudden? Now is not a good time, I need to organize the army to begin marching. Can't this wait?" (Tanya)

The Hanzo hesitated momentarily, then repeated the request.

"… Please proceed immediately. We have been tasked with summoning you, using force if absolutely necessary. We ask you not to make us resort to such means." (Hanzo)

She raised an eyebrow at the threat. True to his words, the rest of the squad was standing by in the next room, fully prepared to arrest her were she to resist. Escape wouldn't exactly be difficult since they had no means to prevent teleportation, but doing so now would cause more problems than it was worth.

"Alright, then. Who am I reporting to?" (Tanya)

"Demiurge-sama is awaiting you at the supply depot in the great forest. We will escort you to the location." (Hanzo)

"No need, let's go now." (Tanya)

They had their own teleportation arranged for the group, but for her, it was faster to do so herself. Grabbing the Hanzo, one quick [Greater Teleportation] placed them just outside the door to the central mausoleum of the fake Nazarick.

"Excuse me." (Tanya)

"Enter." (Cocytus)

When Tanya knocked on the outer gate, the answer came not Demiurge's, but instead from Cocytus's rigid voice.

The wooden door was pulled open, and she was directed to enter by Cocytus. She entered, followed by the Hanzo she had brought along, and he closed the door, following behind them.

For every few short steps she took forward, his immense mass thundered once behind her. Like a rhythmic drumbeat pressing her forward, his footfalls echoed behind her as she neared the center.

A minute later, she turned the corner and passed into the room. Her attention was drawn to the center of the room, where a small throne assembled out of bones and skulls stood empty. Demiurge quietly stood just behind it, flanked at one side by Mare, while Cocytus took his place at the opposite end. Lastly, the Hanzo passed forward, kneeling at Demiurge's side.

Tanya stood at the center of this formation, surrounded by a Floor Guardian at each side; altogether, a frightening amount of force had been assembled here.

Without minding the implied threat, she faced Demiurge and spoke.

"Per your summons, I have arrived. What do you require of me in this busy time?" (Tanya)

"Very well. Urgent as you may call this situation, I don't expect anything will change for your friends with just a few days, and neither will those days significantly affect the preparedness of our enemies. I believe with that with that, we have skipped the excuses, so shall we proceed to the main point?" (Demiurge)

True to his claim, those few words were in effect an abridged version of where their conversation would have proceeded in the following minutes. Since those topics had just been addressed in a matter of seconds, the next would unavoidably be his main goal, which – based on her surroundings – would not be praise.

"… Of course, please proceed." (Tanya)

Those few seconds were enough for Demiurge to seize away any initiative she might otherwise have held.

"Your actions have far overstepped the limits of the authority lended to your position." (Demiurge)

"I do not recall any restrictions on the means to complete the mission being given?" (Tanya)

Demiurge gave a relaxed shrug with a wry smile, as if disappointed by having to explain something so obvious to a stupid child.

"Any Guardian who takes independent action outside Nazarick must be accompanied by at least five servants, each with a level of 75 at minimum." (Demiurge)

"Yes, so what?" (Tanya)

She had indeed heard a similar explanation once before, but that a restriction should have nothing to do with her.

"Although we are unlikely to encounter anything strong enough to threaten us, there are always unexpected circumstances such as those who ambushed Shalltear. Dying would be one thing, but being captured or controlled to leak the information you have about Nazarick is unacceptable. The Hanzos were lent to you for a reason, and in case it wasn't clear, their purpose was not for you to endanger everything by taking worthless risks!" (Demiurge)

"Is that all? What, with this reception I thought you would have something actionable." (Tanya)

In response to his rage, she made a show of relaxing. Behind his glasses, Demiurge's gemstone eyes twitched once at the mockery.

The heavy clang of metal against stone rang from the side. Cocytus had struck the ground with his halberd, leaving a small ring of frost where the weapon landed.

"We. Are. Servants. Of. The. Same. Master." (Cocytus)

After a few seconds, Tanya bowed slighlty.

"… Excuse me." (Tanya)

"You believe the gains to have outweighed the risks?" (Demiurge)

"Yes. By intercepting a discussion they believed to be private, I was able to confirm the possession of an item with domination abilities. Furthermore, the previous wielder was recently replaced, having been killed. The circumstances line up perfectly, they are the ones responsible for brainwashing Shalltear-sama." (Tanya)

The redirection was a success.

"Can we start killing them all now?" (Mare)

"Not yet, Mare. As much as I would love to go skin them myself, Ainz-sama has made his will clear, and we wouldn't dare to steal his prey." (Demiurge)

"So, we don't touch them, but level the city to send a message?" (Mare)

"Please wait, Mare-sama. Taking such rash actions would drive the culprits to flee, which would obstruct Ainz-sama's objective. If you wish, I will call to request your aid once it is required." (Tanya)

"Ah, yes, let's do that then." (Mare)

_Weapon of mass destruction __secured._

Mare's area-of-effect magic was comparable to Ainz's own. For all intents and purposes, any force he faced off against would face certain annihilation. Taking his harmless outward appearance into account, he became the perfect trump card for reversing the situation against an entire army.

Of course, they would be on guard once he was revealed, but that single use against an unprepared army would be devastating. Trekking through snow and deserts was difficult enough, but she didn't want to imagine having to lead a division through an area under the control of an arch-druid of his caliber, in which the entirety of nature had literally turned hostile to her.

No amount of preparation could break through that defense. Perhaps with access to heavy artillery and an unlimited supply of ammunition, she could saturate it with enough shells to erase everything that moves, but not even that would guarantee that the air and earth wouldn't suddenly turn toxic or rise to consume any passerby.

Winter in the Federation couldn't possibly compare to that nightmare.

Her attention returned to Demiurge.

"Is this sufficient, Demiurge-sama? May I return to my work now?" (Tanya)

"For the time being. I will relay this news to Ainz-sama personally. We will see to creating a fitting execution for the criminals; continue your work to lure them out. You may continue using the Hanzos as before." (Demiurge)

"Thank you very much. On the topic, Hanzo, you never finished your report, what did you find in the basement underneath that tower?" (Tanya)

"Our apologies for the delay. We were able to scout the first basement floor, which contained a number of document stores, conference rooms, and official residences. We examined several of the current documents, and delivered copies to both yourself and Demiurge-sama. Unfortunately, we were unable to proceed beyond the floor, as we encountered an individual we were not confident in passing undetected. Per your orders, we retreated." (Hanzo)

"Somebody _you_ couldn't sneak past?" (Tanya)

Fitting for their levels, Hanzos had a range of ninja-class skills and magic to support their stealth. Passive and permanent [Perfect Invisibility], second only to [Perfect Unknowable], which they could also cast. Numerous short-range teleportation and escape skills such as hiding and traveling through shadows. There were a few astral-type monsters which were better still, but were a Hanzo serious about hiding, over half the Floor Guardians would be unable to reliably detect them.

"That's quite something. How were they able to escape detection up until now?" (Tanya)

"The target is a half-human, half-elf female, classes assumed to be mostly pure warrior, level estimated at 70 to 80. Equipment is an even mix of legendary-class and divine-class, details unknown. We believe that rather than evading recognition, the target has never left the basement, and as such was never identified up until now." (Hanzo)

Tanya, together with all three Guardians who had just listened to the report, were exceedingly surprised by the details.

"Perhaps I was underestimating their threat after all…" (Tanya)

"That level alone is quite something for this world's standards, but for them to have equipment superior to us Guardians, it certainly is beyond our expectations. It should be equipment passed down from the ones they call gods, and all but confirms their identity as former YGGDRASIL players. If you were to fight somebody like that, Cocytus…" (Demiurge)

"Easily. Done. One. Who. Simply. Inherits. Weapons. Not. Prepared. Specifically. For. Them. By. Their. Creator. Cannot. Hope. To. Achieve. True. Mastery." (Cocytus)

His tone betrayed a sliver of excitement at the possibility of facing a worthy opponent. True to his design, he was a warrior through and through.

"Let's go report this then?" (Mare)

"Yes, our priority is informing Ainz-sama of everything we have learned here. He may have already predicted this outcome, but it is nonetheless our responsibility to confirm his conclusions." (Demiurge)

"… Ah, right, I'll leave that to you. If possible, could I request some reinforcements who can imitate a human form? The enemy is a warrior, so I would like some front-liners to stand in my place." (Tanya)

"I will deliver your request alongside our report. Dismissed." (Demiurge)

* * *

**Part 4**

Two days later, the army of 12,000 was arrayed opposite a large, heavily fortified city.

Unlike the fortress city of E-Rantel, which had been layered with fortifications over the last century to stand against foreign invasions, this city of Terrerence – sharing the name of the God of Earth – had been reconstructed from a normal city into a stronghold in only a year, approximately 300 years ago, in response to threats by a now-destroyed coalition of nations to the north.

The city originally stood on a relatively flat plain, but in that year, the very earth upon which it was built was raised by several meters until it had been terraformed into a small hill. The work required to accomplish such a project would be unimaginable in any other country, but the collaboration of two individuals with appropriate Talents had sped the work by leaps and bounds – or so the story goes.

As a city, it was not quite as large as E-Rantel, but its colossal walls and towers were truly majestic. Just beyond those walls, a there was a moat with the scale of an artificial major river, and beyond that still: nothing. Trees which might serve as materials for siege engines had been cleared, grasses tall enough to conceal intruders were cut or burned, without a single farm, ranch, or granary which a besieging force could use to feed themselves.

If there was one problem with the current fortifications, it was that they were fundamentally designed with human or demihuman opponents in mind. Outlasting a besieging army comprised of undead or demons who didn't need to eat was a futile effort, and while sixty-meter walls would be nigh impenetrable against even giants, there existed countless monsters and heteromorphic beings who could fly, climb, or even seep through gaps in the portcullis.

Of course, in theory such monsters would not gather in large enough numbers to breach the defenses, but that assertion ironically came only a few decades prior to the invasion of the Demon Gods.

Thankfully, though far from a perfect victory, the city's defenses were sufficient to hold out until reinforcements could arrive, and the attacking Demon God was slain.

Morale among the men manning the walls was high. This was the first bastion of humanity against the monsters invading from the north, and they had received reserve soldiers in large numbers, including elites from the capital.

Those elites did not share the same sentiment. Two men watched from the turret of one corner tower. The older of the two looked to be at least fifty, and he held a primitive bronze telescope. After a short time, he sighed and handed it off to his partner, who similarly brought it to his eye and used it to look off into the distance. His response was identical, a depressed sigh.

"We're here as sacrifices, aren't we…"

"I'm not seeing anything which can break down these walls, at least. Lizardmen, goblins, skeletons… undead knights? They're definitely powerful, but don't seem the type to climb, maybe we can hold out after all?"

"That would be nice… the human hippogriff knights look to be the only flyers, so unless they can get behind us to open the gates, they can't get in. Although, there's no chance we can ride out and drive them away, numerical advantage or not, so we're stuck here. With the enlarged garrison, we've got a month of food and water at best."

"So it comes down to reinforcements, help our men don't need to know isn't coming. 'Delay them to the end', they said. We must buy at least a few more days for the capital."

The older man was resolute in his determination, while the younger was more cynical. He was prepared to die here, but accepting such a direct order to die hopelessly was difficult.

"Just like with the Evil Gods, the heroes will save the day once the entire population is already being digested by monsters. Now, that's our position."

"Stop it. Those people out there, they need their legends to fight today."

"You're right, I understand. It's just…"

"Enough. Leave the conversation here, we should get back to the preparations, let the men see us at work."

The two were members of the Earthwall Scripture, one a veteran and the other a newly-promoted member. Unlike the rest of the Six Scriptures, theirs was not secret in that their identities were publicly known. In fact, they were regularly promoted: whenever the Black Scripture destroyed a powerful monster, or the Windflower Scripture captured an infamous criminal, it would be these 'heroes' who would parade through the street to receive the credit.

The benefits were twofold: The secret Scriptures would have their involvement concealed, and the people would get their heroes. To the soldiers garrisoning the walls of this citadel, having two such masters at their backs was incredibly reassuring. The true abilities of these agents would hardly be relevant once the battle had already started.

"Hold on, sir, take another look, they're starting to move."

He passed the telescope back over to the older partner in a hurry.

"They're advancing? Without siege weapons? What are they doing?"

With a flash, a blast ran across an entire face of the walls.

That was the last thing these two members of the Earthwall Scripture saw as the tower they were standing on moments ago collapsed, and they fell for a hundred meters towards the ground below.

* * *

Two hours earlier.

Roughly twenty people were gathered in a hastily assembled command tent. While the majority of the soldiers was still in the process of steadily gathering into ranks, they had arrived at the head of the army, took one look at the fortress before them, and promptly had this tent set up for a meeting.

"So, how are you planning on assaulting that fortress?" (Tanya)

She didn't get a response. Over half the members assembled were only looking towards the ground, refusing to meet her eyes.

After several regular sessions of hellish training, they finally received a night of good rest. Come dawn, the entire camp had been awoken by Death Knights marching by the rows of tents, drumming on their shields. When they unsteadily assembled, they learned about the war with the Slane Theocracy, and were ordered to begin marching in only two hours.

A certain degree of protesting was understandable.

Although they might have suspected that this would be the case, having the situation actually turn so suddenly was a blow to morale. Of course, the men knew their duties, and to begin with, neither the Kingdom's soldiers nor Empire's knights ever actually had a choice to refuse.

Out of all the human forces, only Neia's volunteers were enthusiastically giving their support, but the support could not exceed what was realistically to accomplish.

"For us, it is most likely impossible. Not only are we outnumbered, but we lack the equipment to fill the moat or destroy the gate. At minimum, we would require an additional week to transport lumber for rams from the forests surrounding E-Rantel."

The man was a paladin from the Holy Kingdom, but having been captured shortly after the fall of the great wall, he spent much of the conflict in a prison camp, where his right arm was removed and disfigured to prevent ordinary healing magic from restoring it. Such was not an uncommon story, but his skill as a commander and dedication to the cause since its early days had earned him his place at Neia's side.

Neia herself was present as well, now equipped with the same gear as the time she had traveled as Ainz's temporary squire. Accompanying her was another woman who served as her assistant and manager, but as her knowledge of military affairs was limited, she only listened without joining in the discussion.

"Aside from small villages, it was His Majesty's magic which broke down the gates and let us liberate the larger cities. We once had the chance to infiltrate a city with CZ-senpai and the rebelling Zern, but the Theocracy would have no such traitors among their number." (Neia)

Tanya nodded.

"Certainly, there is that option, just using magic to level the city." (Tanya)

Several faces paled at the suggestion she muttered. Evidently, nobody doubted that she _could_ do it, only a question of whether she _would_.

"An indiscriminate killing would prevent the master from negotiating peace with the human country later. Please reconsider such measures." (Goblin Strategist)

It was Enri's Goblin Strategist who spoke in defense for the people of the city.

Historically, air raids against civilian centers could just as easily unite the country against foreign invaders, rather than breaking their will to resist. Even in her own war, a simple harassment of Moskva had gotten her censured, if only as a formality to appease their diplomatic corps – even though negotiating with the communists would never have been possible to begin with.

"Unfortunately, we do not have time for a siege. Think of it as a worst-case solution. However, were the walls to be removed, would the situation change?" (Tanya)

The old paladin thought for a moment before replying with an explanation.

"Our defensive tactics are very similar to the Theocracy. As we approach the wall, they will send large numbers of summoned angels, either for direct attacks or to drop firebombs on our men. In either case, they could not stop the likes of Death Knights, but our casualties during the charge would be severe." (Paladin)

"We can just shoot those things down before they reach you."

The representative of the lizardmen was smaller than most, the former chief of their 'Small Fang' tribe who had since become the head hunter of the combined tribe, named Suukyu Juju. As he said, the hunters he led had become proficient in using their new weapons.

Let alone third-tier angel summons like the Archangel Flame, even fifth-tier summons didn't last long against their barrage. As demonstrated in a mock battle against the few summoners from the Empire and Holy Kingdom, the result was utterly one-sided.

"Hah, their monsters fly towards you in straight lines, hitting them is even simpler than regular hunting. Just charge ahead and we won't let them reach you." (Suukyu)

Seeing the doubt in the eyes of the paladin who normally relied on the strategy of summons, Suukyu laughed and proudly boasted about the skill of his hunters.

All eyes turned back to the paladin, who sank back into thought.

"Without angels, I'm not sure how else they could respond. They would be down to arrows and fireballs, but with His Majesty's undead with their shields as the vanguard, the men behind them would be protected, and once it turns into a melee, the Theocracy's soldiers would break and rout." (Paladin)

The paladin had run out of ideas for what opposition they might expect. He had watched the Death Knights and Death Soldiers provided by Ainz take the role of practice opponents for other knights and paladins, almost never receiving a single scratch during their matches.

Only somebody at the level of an adamantite-ranked adventurer hope to stand against them; even if only a small crevice could be made in the wall, as soon as a single one of the undead made it through, any defenders on the opposite side would quickly fall into chaos.

"Does anybody have any further issues with these tactics? If you have any concerns, speak up, raising objections will not be punished." (Tanya)

Nobody spoke. Unfortunately, even if Tanya offered the chance, few would dare to oppose her suggestions, flawed or not. The issue became even worse when the subordinates in question were of the fanatically loyal variety.

As the doctrines she followed throughout her career were written with a completely different army composition in mind, overlooking something obvious became increasingly worrisome, particularly when it came to missing some common sense specific to this world.

"Prepare your individual units to attack two hours from now. Our undead will lead the vanguard, followed by other heavy infantry and shield-bearers. Archer and crossbow units may close the distance as they see fit to screen the infantry against summoned monsters. Finally, aerial cavalry should take care with interception from angels, and provide support as they see fit." (Tanya)

She allowed another pause to listen for objections, but still heard none.

"We attack two hours from now, with my magic as the signal. Dismissed." (Tanya)

* * *

Tanya spent some time watching the entire army from above.

This had gradually grown into a habit, observing the army from the sky as they moved into formation. Unlike the dirty, shell-riddled trenches hiding soldiers of the last world, the knights ran around like shiny insects, making for a much more engaging subject.

Not having to avoid airburst shells from enemy artillery also helped, as did the invisibility magic.

Only five minutes remained now until two hours, and each regiment was in formation, hearing speeches from their respective commanders. At the very front, a squad comprised of a few dozen of the undead stood ahead of each, similarly ready to move, but of course there was no need for them to give motivational speeches.

There was inherently satisfying about watching the mass of people moving according to her orders.

Since the start was rapidly approaching, she descended towards the ground, landing gently without becoming visible.

"… What are you doing?"

"… Don't talk to me, I'm invisible." (Tanya)

At the place where she landed, Keeno was already waiting, similarly invisible.

"That half-assed invisibility? Trying to find somebody who can see through it?" (Keeno)

"…" (Tanya)

"See a tall man with a scar on his face? Leading a bunch of magic casters with flat hats covering their faces?" (Keeno)

"Acquaintance?" (Tanya)

"The scar was a parting gift from Lakyus." (Keeno)

"Nobody like that, the two in the closest tower are the only ones with half-decent equipment, but they're amateurs who couldn't notice me standing a few meters behind them." (Tanya)

"Really…? Shame, guess we'll be sitting this one out then." (Keeno)

Despite being well within range of archers on the wall, the casual conversation made their disdain obvious. If nobody could so much as see through ordinary [Invisibility], then they really were throwaways to buy time for the main army to fortify, likely inside the walls of the Holy City itself.

"Well, fine. It's time to start, so go back to playing cards." (Tanya)

"What are they going to do, throw toothpicks at me?" (Keeno)

"No, but I was about to take the first strike…" (Tanya)

Keeno hastily took several steps back and raised a wall in front of her. She cautiously peeked around the side.

Without minding her antics, Tanya leveled her rifle towards the base of the corner tower.

Glowing formulas appeared, spread, and quickly collapsed into two rings. Between these two, a bulb of light gradually increased in intensity. Seconds later, it reached a blinding intensity.

Then, she squeezed the trigger. The base of the tower exploded, throwing fragments of stone across the section of wall perpendicular to the one they were facing. Without stopping the attack, Tanya swept the beam across the wall which the army had spread parallel to, reaching the end of the wall and cutting down the other tower as well.

The entire wall, ramparts cut away from the earth, began collapsing into the moat below. Ramparts, defensive catapults, ballistae, and humans all collectively fell from the wall, breaking against the rocks below.

She had not breached a section of the wall with her attack, but rather entirely removed one side of the embankment, complete with the concentrated defenders preparing to face off with her army.

All was quiet while gravity worked, until tens of thousands of tons of debris reached the moat below. The thundering crash echoed across the plains, followed by a brief drizzle as the displaced water from the moat rained back down on them.

"Hm… the angle was mostly right to fill the moat without collateral damage, but I couldn't quite leave a path all the way up the hill… seven out of ten, I suppose? Oh, well." (Tanya)

Once the rumbling settled down, she criticized her own handiwork. Having failed to accurately adjust for the additional power, her aim had shifted slightly, and so the walls had not collapsed as projected.

"Did it get louder since last time?" (Keeno)

"It's a concentrated optical formula, boosted using the same theory as a simplified laser, with a pair of modified defensive shell as replacement mirrors to amplify the charge." (Tanya)

"… Right." (Keeno)

This took a lot of concentration to maintain while it charged, but since the magic power was redirected instead of forcibly compressed, an equivalent amount of power took less mana out of her.

Of course, Keeno had no knowledge of how the science behind lasers worked, even with that quick explanation.

"It's unusually quiet… they were supposed to charge with the signal, why aren't they moving? Ainz-sama gave the same order to the Empire's knights with his magic, but they just stood in place, is it a difference in culture?" (Tanya)

"No, that's probably not it…?" (Keeno)

"Ah, I haven't sent the order to the undead yet, that must be why." (Tanya)

She nodded with that revalation, then broadcast an order to each of the liches in command, using a modified message based in part on the spell she had seen the cardinals use.

"_Charge._"

* * *

Undead soldiers simultaneously raised their shields and began charging. Following after them, the rest scrambled forward.

With the strongest defenders arranged on the wall facing the enemy army having suddenly been disintegrated, the entire city rapidly fell into a panic.

Instead of a coordinated resistance by dozens of angels, only two flew towards the attackers. Archers and soldiers rushed in opposite directions, while priests ran straight into the front lines.

It turned into a rout within minutes.

That night, Terrerence fell.

* * *

"Didn't you originally say you couldn't fight to take the city like His Majesty?" (Neia)

"I didn't participate in the battle, I only opened a bit of a hole in the wall?" (Tanya)

"… That reasoning is correct." (CZ)

* * *

**Part 5**

When dawn broke, Tanya was in the former governor's mansion, having long since given up on getting any rest during the night.

Her personal involvement in the conquest was virtually nonexistent when excluding the first attack. Although she continued to act cautiously while expecting an ambush by some hidden reserves, no such attack came.

The single noteworthy action she took was razing the grand cathedral of the Earth God – which had become a final citadel for the remaining defenders – to the ground.

Was it necessary to do so? No, but the presence of enemy combatants gave her an excuse to do what might otherwise be considered a war crime, and so the religious center burned.

Even still, no hero came out to try saving the city. As far as she could tell, the Theocracy had truly been intent on abandoning the city and its defenders. In fact, based on the civilian population present in the border city, they had not even taken the time to evacuate its citizens, despite obviously preparing for an attack.

As a direct result, she had struggled less when it came to dealing with the 20,000 defenders compared to now figuring out a way to police the 300,000 ordinary citizens who lived in the city.

In a sense, the problem was already solved: with Death Knights patrolling the streets, civilians and soldiers alike barricaded themselves inside their homes, hiding from the avatars of death stomping around outside. However, these were the strongest fighting force available to her, and more than a few would need to be left behind, since even garrisoning all of them would leave them outnumbered one thousand-to-one. Furthermore, leaving the undead unattended without a controller raised the odds of them running amok and causing an incident.

That night, while the city was being pacified, she was occupied with justifying the need for additional reinforcements to Albedo and Demiurge, while simultaneously planning out her future actions and receiving reports from her own subordinates on the state of the city.

By the time the sun rose again in the early morning, she had long since worked beyond what resistance to the sleep status her equipment afforded, and wanted nothing more than to doze off for a few hours.

Alas, she was given no such mercy. A knock came from the door.

"Your Highness, this is Neia Baraja. May I enter?" (Neia)

"Even if you don't announce yourself, I know who you are. Come in." (Tanya)

The fatigue in her voice was audible even as she tried to conceal it.

Somehow, while she was busy with other matters in the early days after the army assembled, the titles associated with her had quickly spiraled out of control. Rumors started with misinformation by the goblins, who heard the story from their summoner and took it as fact, and quickly became the leading theory for how she got to her position. Add in her relationship with the Sorcerer King – close enough to be on a first-name basis, according to several sources – plus herself not thinking to deny the fact immediately, and it quickly became an established identity. By the time Tanya noticed that half the army was convinced that she was royalty, it was too late for her to disavow.

Even if she were to privately deny them, the rumors had gone too far to contain. With no other choice, she tentatively decided to just go along with it. Having that claim to legitimacy would help justify her actions, and more likely than not, the rumors would be harmless in the end.

Perhaps due to this understanding, Neia had taken it upon herself to interact personally whenever possible, whether to deliver reports, request information, or on occasion, just to talk about Ainz. Looking back on it now, the last of those options might actually have been the most common.

It wasn't entirely clear how she rationalized this with the story she had made up when they first met, but she seemed to have an unusually high tolerance for ignoring common sense whenever Ainz was involved in the explanation.

Regardless, the circumstances were convenient as well, as the girl was well-liked, followed orders, and had a natural talent for inciting a crowd. Although, constantly being compared against an idealized Ainz was a little uncomfortable.

"Since you're here in person, I take it the fighting is mostly over?" (Tanya)

"We have publicly declared our victory. In the announcement, we guaranteed the safety of all who surrender their weapons and remain inside their homes for the duration of the occupation… is this acceptable?" (Neia)

This was something she had gone ahead with before getting explicit permission to do so, but as far as Tanya was concerned, her judgment was correct. There was nothing to be gained by exterminating the surrendered militia except antipathy.

Neia's own heroic equipment advertised her rank, and the reputation of the 'Faceless One' had even spread internationally. Without a doubt, the promise was infinitely more believable coming from a fellow human, even a suspicious girl who covered her face with a visor.

"No, it's a perfect result. You've exceeded all expectations, well done." (Tanya)

"Thank you very much; I will relay those words to those responsible." (Neia)

"Do you have an accurate estimate of the casualties yet?" (Tanya)

"Yes. Thirty-five men were killed during the attack, with a further seventy-six heavily injured beyond our priests' ability to heal immediately." (Neia)

"And, the enemy's?" (Tanya)

"We do, although it is only a rough measurement. According to the Theocracy's plans, the number of defenders on the north wall numbered two thousand, all of whom were killed with your attack. Excluding them, six thousand were slain during the conquest of the city proper. Finally, approximately ten thousand remain in the city, having surrendered their arms and armor." (Neia)

"I see." (Tanya)

Neia brought news of an overwhelming victory,but Tanya's response was somber.

_I __killed two thousand people yesterday. __Without resistance, using a single formula, all too easily. __In only a few seconds, the amount of blood on my hands grew by an entire digit, __and honestly, I doubt I would feel much even if __I __were to add __another __zero __or two__. __Linking __power with obligation is __understandable when it comes to politics or leadership__, but __with literal strength, __there's a point where you eclipse everybody capable of holding you to that responsibility. __In both body and mind, I've passed beyond being human. __The thought of that is scarier than anything else._

The soldiers of the Theocracy were her enemies. Everybody who stood behind the battlements in defense of the city, veteran or volunteer, hero or drafted militia, did so with the knowledge that they might die. Naturally, given the chance, they would kill her just as she had killed them.

Yet, there was an insurmountable gap between Tanya as she was now, and the men armed with pikes and longbows manning the wall. No, even if it were her as an Imperial aerial mage, they would have been no more threatening than children with sticks.

Were she so inclined, Tanya had the option of landing on the wall before spending the next several hours beating every single one of its defenders into submission with nothing but her fists, conquering the city without a single casualty on either side, and come out of it without a single injury.

She chose not to do so. This was a war, and she had neither the need nor the obligation to provide such an exaggerated mercy. They were hostile to her, and killing them was only reasonable. Unfortunately, when it came to humans, reason would often become secondary in the face of emotion.

To her, they were only unknown enemies, but to others, they were siblings, parents, friends, and lovers. No matter how hopeless the disparity in power, there would always be those who sought to kill her in the name of revenge.

As a result of her actions yesterday, the time when she could sleep without wearing armor was likely pushed back by several generations.

When Tanya came to this realization, she leaked a sigh.

"Is everything alright, Your Highness? Was your magic power exhausted from using that great magic attack?" (Neia)

"It's nothing to worry about, we can continue advancing at the current pace." (Tanya)

That variant optical formula had been the first time Neia – or most of the army – had actually seen her use magic for combat. Up until now, Tanya had limited herself to using simple utility magic, instead of anything more powerful or destructive. In that sense, being treated as a monster wouldn't be outside expectations, but Neia earnestly appeared to worry for her health instead.

The last time she heard those words, the Sorcerer King had drained his own magic saving them from the demihuman armies they couldn't defeat themselves. His mercy left him too weakened, and as a direct consequence, he was defeated by Jaldabaoth in their first battle.

The months that followed had been agonizing. She spent every waking day gathering the search party so they might find where Ainz had fallen even one day sooner. Before she knew it, her objective was no longer finding the one man who could save her country, but instead to save the Supreme Being who had opposed that Demon Emperor, the incarnation of justice whose mercy must become known to the entirety of the Holy Kingdom.

The magic Tanya had used was beautiful; only the blossoms of white flame cast by Ainz could be compared, the power exclusive to the mighty which erased everything in its path.

Such a power must surely come at a great cost. If a magic caster as powerful as the Sorcerer King could become exhausted from repeated battles, then surely this little demon had her limits as well. For the sake of her men, she had spent enough magic to leave herself in this languid state.

Even if His Majesty was infinitely generous, Neia would never forgive herself if one of his trusted servants were to die because of her inattention to their safety.

It might be a needless worry, but that was the least she could do to repay her debt, and to be useful to His Majesty.

"I have contacted the Sorcerous Kingdom to request an additional garrison of undead; they will be delivered later today. Pick a few hundred to stay behind as mediators, for the gentle side of policing the city. Prepare to depart for the Holy City tomorrow at dawn." (Tanya)

"Ah, you, you were planning on leaving immediately?" (Neia)

"Is there a problem? You said it yourself, the people won't come out as long as the Death Knights are patrolling the street. Rather than letting them get used to their presence and learn their movements, we should finish up quickly." (Tanya)

"But, we haven't met the Theocracy's main forces, who may be on the way to reinforce this city as we speak. Facing them with their own prided walls would be best." (Neia)

"The colleague I called for is among the best at this. Defense won't be a concern, no matter how many they throw at him; If anything, that would make our job easier." (Tanya)

"Even still… since you brought down the city so far ahead of schedule, because of that, wouldn't it be better to rest for a while?" (Neia)

"Ah…" (Tanya)

She'd evidently spent too long with 205th, to the point where it had distorted her standards for what to expect out of soldiers. They were the sort who would cry and complain when she ordered them to fight for 40 consecutive hours, but would still get the job done in the end.

Ordinary semi-professional soldiers would expect to rest for some time after a battle – though it wasn't the safest idea to let them sit idle for too long, lest the men try to do something unspeakable to the people of the city.

"… Very well, I'll arrange for an additional day. I'll overlook it if the alcohol rations don't add up in the next survey, but keep it within reason. I won't accept that excuse if the men violate any international laws during the night." (Tanya)

"Thank you very much!" (Neia)

Somewhere along the line, their respective understanding had shifted, but since the discussion reached a mutually satisfactory conclusion, neither took notice of the discrepancy.

* * *

Raymond slowly read the report given to him.

Then, he returned to the top, and started reading it again.

He continued to read the page repeatedly, without saying a word, his face a mixture of sorrow and disbelief.

"Sir?"

The messenger, worried by the level-headed Raymond wearing such an expression, called out to him.

"Just one day…? Terrerence, was supposed to delay them for at least two weeks, fell in a single day? Its walls cut down by a sword of light?" (Raymond)

The contents were ludicrous, but neither Raymond nor 'Thousand Mile Astrologer' would ever give a report in jest.

"How should we proceed?" (Messenger)

Raymond continued to stare at the page, deep in thought. The details written therein must contain a way out. He started mumbling to himself.

"The general brought down the north wall with a single attack, but then withdrew, letting the undead take the city itself… why… why not press the attack herself, or just target the defenders directly… unless, it could only be used that one time? The city was overrun without resistance, yet the army stopped to rest… can't fight after attacking once? If that's the case, then… if we are prepared to endure that damage… then we could… What is the current state of the Second Army?" (Raymond)

With the last question, Raymond raised his head; this was no longer his thinking, but a query for information.

Though the man's current role was that of a messenger, he was also an understudy of considerable rank within the Theocracy's elites. He needed no delay before answering.

"The Second Army and Holocaust Scripture have successfully withdrawn from the Elf Kingdom. As expected, the elves had no strength to pursue them. They merged with the returning Fourth Army, and are currently garrisoned southeast of the Holy City – 60,000 strong." (Messenger)

"Relay this report to the Grand Marshall, and give him this message: The Sorcerous Kingdom struck Terrerence mere hours after arriving, without even stopping to rest. For reasons unknown, they are in a hurry to finish this war, so their next action should be to march on the Holy City itself, leaving only a token garrison. Destroy as many of the roads connecting the two cities before they can use them. At the same time, have the armies circle around them and retake the city. If we can time this perfectly, we have just one chance to cut off their supplies and catch them between the rock and the hard place." (Raymond)

* * *

**Part 6**

The past few weeks had been a chaotic mess of frustration for Owen Conley Declan.

First, he received orders to withdraw the Holocaust Scripture he led from the outskirts of the Elven Capital. The decade-long war against the elves which he had been called in to end, after months of preparations and whittling down their strength, was now to be abandoned before he could launch a decisive strike to assassinate their king.

The command came to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but no matter how much he tried to protest, it was irreversible. Their new priority was to focus on the greater threat, the Sorcerous Kingdom who were preparing to invade the Theocracy.

Not long after the army settled down, the war officially began. This was within expectations, but only three days later, his orders were to retake the Fortress City of Terrerence.

Not to reinforce the city, but to reclaim it – the impregnable city had already fallen.

Owen shuddered when he thought about the monsters guarding the city for the undead king: Death Knights, the legendary undead who could threaten entire cities, numbering approximately one hundred.

The city had been assaulted and razed in a single day, before any evacuation could begin. In other words, it was likely that the Death Knights' ability to create Squire Zombies out of people they killed would be applied to every single one of the city's 200,000 citizens.

Even if they were only slightly stronger than ordinary zombies, the horde was immense. Their soldiers were stronger, but their fatigue would quickly build against the tireless undead. Without counting the Death Knights themselves, clashing against the squires would have devastating consequences.

No, fighting them in the field was not an option.

Thankfully, there was no need to do so. These were undead who existed only to kill living things, not human soldiers under the command of a capable general. They had none of the abilities required to use the city's defenses to their advantage; In fact, those walls would limit them, serving only to box them in.

With no archers, magic casters, or summoners manning those walls, they need only burn the city along with the host of undead, who would be trapped inside its walls.

Certainly, burning what had once been their own city was an unfortunate loss, but it was no doubt already a ruin ravaged by the undead. As for what were once the citizens of the city, it was their failure in not giving them ample time to escape, but there was no longer a choice except to aid their spirits in passing on.

On their way to the city, they fashioned catapults and trebuchets, pushing them forwards as they marched. Attacking Terrerence required one to bring siege weapons from far away, but with their numbers, the speed of their advance did not slow significantly.

All throughout this process, Owen remained in constant communication with headquarters in the Holy City, who themselves were carefully monitoring the enemy army.

Espionage was performed with a combination of information-gathering magic and direct physical observations, thereby minimizing the possibility of misinformation. Not even the most complex illusions could perfectly deceive both methods.

Communication was performed using [Message] magic, but this was done using several independent communications, each of which was verified using a password known only to the speaker and listener. Any disparity between the messages would discard the message; even if one of the messengers were to be captured, sending false orders was all but impossible.

These methods had been tried and tested for years against the elves, refined to the point of perfection. On top of that, the very same army of veterans who developed them was now putting them to use. For them, these techniques were practically second-nature.

And so, they were able to coordinate their movements flawlessly, reaching Terrerence only one day after the Sorcerous Kingdom's army had departed.

Owen, ever confident of his strength which could rank even among the members of the Black Scripture, rode at the head of his column. As the city finally came into view after several days, he could only gape at the unexpected sight.

"Why is there a forest here…" (Owen)

There weren't supposed to be trees in the vicinity of the city, since invaders could turn them into rams or other siege equipment, that was why they had brought their own from so far away. Yet there it was, a lush forest which blended with the scenery as if it had always been there.

"Am I seeing things, captain? The city's supposed to be surrounded in flatlands, right? Right?"

His men shared his disbelief as they observed what had become of the city. By all accounts, this shouldn't be possible, but there was no reasonable way to deny what they were all seeing.

Because of his experience, the inconsistency raised every possible alarm Owen could imagine.

"Men, proceed with the utmost caution! Assume that forest contains enemies on par with, if not superior to the elites of those elven bastards! Load the siege engines at the edge of our range, but do not carelessly enter the forest!" (Owen)

His booming orders resounded throughout the army, who had fallen silent at the alien sight before them. Nearby officers began scrambling around to spread those orders to the rest.

Confirming that the rest of his men were following behind him, he slowly began to lead the army towards the city.

The Holocaust Scripture were experts in guerilla warfare, equal if not superior to the elves who had resisted a superior army for years with those tactics. They counted a number of high-level rangers and druids among their members, and in most circumstances, a dense forest would be the perfect staging ground for them to show off their specialization.

Approaching armies would be misdirected to wander in circles, monsters lured to attack, soldiers led into traps, nobles and officers assassinated. During their regular missions, even demihuman forces with their own talented rangers would be encircled, entrapped, and overwhelmed with ease.

Despite that, the forest before them filled them with nothing but unease. Those gaps between trees which drew them in, seemingly wandering around to manipulate their perception of distance.

They continued to advance in a loose formation, slowly approaching the edge of the forest, where their own catapults should just barely be able to reach over the walls of the city.

_How did they take the city so quickly, when all four walls and gates are still intact, anyway?_

Owen idly thought this as they made their way towards the forest.

Suddenly, his shoulder was grabbed from behind. Reflexively, he turned, ready to draw his sword, but it was only his subordinate.

"What is it?" (Owen)

"Captain… how long have we been in the forest?"

"What? We're still approaching the…" (Owen)

He looked up over the shoulder of the man, at the trees behind him. He then spun around to the direction he was originally facing. Trees. All around, nothing but trees.

"When did we…" (Owen)

The sentence trailed off as he scanned the surroundings. Using his foot, he marked a line in the earth, indicating the direction they had been walking. Noting one distinctly large tree directly in front of that line, he slowly began looking around, trying to get a grasp of the environment around them.

Once he completed a full circle and again looked in the direction he had originally been walking in, he reconfirmed the distinctly small tree indicated by the line. Nodding to himself, he took another step forward, but stopped. An incongruity stuck in his mind.

"Hey, where did the rest of the squad go?" (Owen)

There was nobody around to hear his question.

Now fully alert, he drew his sword. Without minding which direction he had originally come from, he continued to carefully scan the surrounding trees for movement.

All around, rustling could be heard from the bushes shrouded by the long shadows cast by the midday sun.

"[Enhance Sense]" (Owen)

Calmly, Owen activated a martial art, not for combat, but to focus his attention to the surroundings. He let every tiny sound enter his ears, trying to get a picture of any living creatures moving in the area. However, the only sound he could clearly make out was that of trees walking. Nothing out of the ordinary.

No matter where he looked, there did not appear to be any enemies nearby, so he took a deep breath to calm his breathing. Glancing downwards, the ground was clear, with neither leaves, branches, nor distinctive marks. He cautiously took a step forward, but stopped mid-step. His foot was caught in the vines which had always been there.

Thinking to cut them apart with the sword in his hand, he tried to move his arm. To his disappointment, the arm was wrapped in vines which felt as hard as a thick bundle of steel.

_When did that happen_, he thought to himself, but no answer came to mind.

He decided it must have been there since he entered the forest, since it seemed to be the most reasonable explanation.

Owen was completely immobilized, but didn't think much of it.

With him unable to twist his neck by more than a few degrees in any direction, he simply continued looking forward without any particular interest.

After a couple seconds or days passed, he wasn't sure which, a child in a thick brown cloak entered his field of view.

_How strange_, he thought. He wasn't entirely sure why, but something felt strange.

"Little lady, do you need this ranger to help lead you out of this forest?" (Owen)

The words came out slowly. He stopped to think for a second after each word, as the next one took some time to pop into his head.

"One didn't die? Weird, does he have some resistance…? Oh, well, he seems pretty far gone already. I guess I should call somebody to pick him up?"

The dark elf girl gave a disinterested sigh.

"She said there might be somebody strong, but nobody came. This was a waste of time…"

* * *

**Part 7**

Their march from Terrerence to the Holy City was relatively uneventful.

This wasn't to say that they never encountered any resistance from the Theocracy, but after the first few scouting parties began developing a strange occupational hazard of sprouting oversized crossbow bolts from their chests from what they thought was far out of range, they stopped approaching within a kilometer of the outriders. Aside from those few who were too brave for their own good, they never encountered any large-scale opposition.

Likewise, Mare sent no reports about what was happening in Terrerence. Either they had realized they were being drawn into a trap and abandoned the city to cut their losses, or otherwise they simply had not committed any forces which he considered noteworthy enough to send a report about defeating.

Although direct hostility was minimal, they instead faced every possible means of slowing down the advancing army: Roads were torn up with magic, granaries cleared out, wheat fields either prematurely harvested or, if that wasn't possible, burned to the ground.

Unfortunately for them, their Holy City was on the northern end of the country, only a few days' march from the border. The Theocracy simply didn't have the land area to stop them, so rather than attacking into a proper elastic defense, the harassment served only to stall them a little.

Given the Sorcerous Kingdom's ability to resupply by [Gate] and a number of food-producing magic items, trying to starve them out was a fruitless effort. Still, the paved roads they had expected being replaced with a wide swamp of magically-produced mud certainly did its job in slowing their march, if only by a couple days.

It was no Barbarossa, but the army arrived at the walls of the Holy City exhausted and weak.

But, this was fine. The Theocracy had no way to capitalize on their fatigue to counterattack.

As had been repeatedly demonstrated on the way here, the mud was certainly effective at obstructing horses and humans in heavy armor who had to trudge through it, the lizardmen just laughed at this pathetic excuse for a swamp and skipped across, outflanking any would-be ambushers with a speed not at all inferior to light cavalry.

Then there were the undead at the core of the army, who would be in perfect condition no matter how far they had to march. Lesser skeletons and zombies might get bogged down by mud, but these could simply charge across without caring. A few extra kilograms of mud on their massive bodies wouldn't slow them in the slightest.

Those sentinels atop their towers could only watch as the invading army began pitching tents and entrenching themselves merely a couple kilometers past the outer wall. Unreasonable as it seemed for the besieging army to act so carefree while outnumbered by those very defenders, it was as if they were daring them to sally out and charge the camp.

For the remainder of the day, they didn't do much, only set up camp, rested from their travels, and let the undead dig some fortifications.

Come dawn, a stone fortress stood opposing the city walls: A massive tower, some thirty meters tall. Certainly, it was small when compared to the inner walls or the Cathedral Tower itself. The outer walls which encircled the entire city, however, were similarly sized.

According to the sentinels watching continuously through the night, it was not built up, but rather sprung out of the earth, as if by magic. They couldn't begin to guess at the scale of the ritual required to create an entire fortress in a single night.

What was its purpose? It was certainly imposing and leaving it would be a disgrace for the Theocracy, but shame couldn't win wars. Just as the encampment was built out of range of the walls, so too would attacks from the tower be incapable of reaching the defenders.

A second day came and went, and again neither side made moves to attack. A few bolts were exchanged when somebody came close, but they were near the limits of their maximum range, so accuracy was abysmal, and even an ordinary person could duck down or step aside to let a bolt pass by them harmlessly.

The tower stood firm, and was now being surrounded by trenches and smaller banks of earth, serving both as cover and to obstruct enemies trying to break through.

In truth, neither side fully understood why they were setting up to defend. They were told to expect and prepare for a defensive battle, but little about how they were going to get the Theocracy to abandon their advantageous defensive position to instead charge their own fortress.

When Neia tried to ask on behalf of her commanders, the explanation she received was filled with unknown, untranslatable terms, something about artillery observers, indirect fire, and threats of range asymmetry to force a response. Half her words seemed to be spoken in an entirely foreign language, so the communication fell through.

After some confusion, Tanya gave a much simpler summary: threaten an attack they can't ignore to flush them out.

On the dawn of the third day, the invaders got into position. Archers and crossbowmen stood atop the tower and inside trenches, guarded by mixed ranks of knights, heavy infantry, and undead. Humans, goblins, and liches spread enhancement magic among the soldiers, preparing for an imminent battle.

Yet, they were making no effort to attack. The conspicuous movements of the undead army at the front lines acting with perfect synchronization induced terror and drew attention. Only a few men, tasked specifically with watching the girls at the core of the formation – directly in front of tower – did so without looking away.

The Faceless One and Maid Demon exchanged a brief conversation. Of course, discerning the contents from atop the wall was impossible.

Then, after a brief pause, the Mage General raised her staff, and a magic circle shaped like a dome, ten meters in radius and covered with mechanical-looking patterns spread out to cover all three of them.

* * *

Constructing the Super-tier magic circle struck Tanya with an excruciating pain she hadn't felt in a long time. It was like a splitting headache, except that her consciousness was dissociated from her body to the point where she couldn't clearly tell where her body ended and the formula began.

Her ability to simultaneously perform multiple extremely delicate manipulations of the magic surrounding her had grown exponentially in the past months, but even with that taken into account, she was pushing the limits of her capability.

However, her discipline was paying off, as there were no abnormalities in the formula.

She was not using Super-tier magic, at least not in the strictest meaning. According to the rules of YGGDRASIL's game system, one could only learn and cast their first Super-tier spell upon reaching level 70, which she was certainly nowhere near. On the other hand, she was capable of using 10th tier magic – which should similarly have been above her level – without issue, if only a few times until her mana was exhausted.

What was the difference?

When compared to regular tiered magic, Super-tier magic might well have more differences than similarities. Their uses had a daily limit and long cooldown between casts, which was applied even to nearby allies; Learning them used a different set of spell slots from ordinary magic; Using one did not consume any MP.

The list could be expanded if one were to look at even finer details, but above all else, the last point stuck out as absurd to Tanya.

How is it possible for magic to not use magic? It was an absurd notion. To an experienced mage, it made about as much sense as removing the existence of mass and telling a physicist to explain the difference. It was the magical equivalent of having the universe itself burn the rulebook and flip the table.

Anybody capable of actually doing this would have to be a supreme deity to whom reality itself was merely an opinion.

So, what was Super-tier magic? Ainz described it as being part magic and part skill, but the next question would obviously become, 'what are skills?'

Tanya could learn to make use of the third-tier [Animate Dead], yet Ainz's [Create Low-Tier Undead] was impossible to reproduce. Despite observing him with the maximum possible attention to detail, she could not detect the activation of magic. He activated the skill, and the effect triggered, without any visible magic manipulation on his part.

They were something exclusive to YGGDRASIL's system and its players, but unlike the tiered magic which had been learned over the centuries, skills would never spread beyond the players, NPCs, and monsters which came directly from YGGDRASIL. A lich created in Nazarick would gain skills such as [Negative Energy Touch], yet an equivalent lich which naturally spawned would have no such ability. They could learn spells with very similar effects, but the result was subtly different.

Without the game's systems for learning skills, it was no longer possible to gain new skills in this world.

Tanya could never learn Super-tier magic, not in the way that Ainz used it.

In spite of that, the discussion did not end there. The question of how magic could be cast without cost was still unanswered.

It was impossible. Ainz was incredibly powerful, but that power was not boundless. He could not use magic without expending MP, so there must be another explanation. Even magic was bound by its own laws, which could be studied as with any other science.

Gravitational force did not come into being only after being accurately explained. Even without an accurate understanding of the kinematic laws of planetary motion, a soldier could drop a big rock on his enemy all the same.

In much the same way, magic had been used before the invention of the modern computation orb. treating it as a black box with semi-predictable properties. The efficiency was horrid by any reasonable standard, but it could be done.

Magic cannot be used without a cost. Therefore, Super-tier magic is not activated by its caster, but rather on their behalf, by some external system – designed to imitate the game's mechanics – which provides the requisite mana while enforcing restrictions such as recast time.

In the end, this was nothing more than a hypothesis, one which was likely impossible to prove. With only a bit of inductive reasoning to imply its existence, trying to form any decisive conclusions about it would be silly.

Fortunately, Tanya did not need to prove the theory, only to make use of its effects. Her conjecture was that the casting of Super-tier magic was not itself meaningful, but instead served as a key for triggering the system to activate it. In the same way, that key could be replaced with a 'cash item', a substitute key without the casting delay.

Once the key was provided, the system would lend an immense power in the form of Super-tier magic, enough even to instantly kill a self-proclaimed god. The explanation was workable, if somewhat self-fulfilling, and the identity of the culprit with enough power to create such an absurd system on a planetary scale wasn't difficult to guess.

Provided such a concept really existed, it might also explain unnatural phenomena like 'levels', which can apply even to the world's natives, yet don't naturally belong in reality.

Of course, everything up until now was merely speculation, but this gave her something to test. Super-tier magic was a key, and keys could be forged.

This magic circle dome was identical to the one demonstrated by Ainz, down to the thousands of arcane symbols and images in constant flux. Unlike his spell, the white dome she had created was covered in several places by pale green formulas, serving as scaffolding to better control the massive spell. The resulting amalgamation lacked the brilliant purity of his magic, instead turning into something more mechanical than mystical.

Appearance aside, with the assistance of her own formulas, Tanya could control a formula functionally indistinguishable from the original, at least in theory. To reach the required level of precision, she had no choice but to slow the spell down to a manageable level, stretching the same contents out to over one hundred times the original.

In conclusion, it was exceptionally slow, both painful and difficult to activate and maintain, but at last, after thousands of iterations of trial and error, she finally got the spell to a working state.

Alas, for Tanya, there was no option to stand still and kill time until the spell took effect. For the entire duration of its preparation, she would have to concentrate all her attention on its formation. It wasn't as though she was locked into position and unable to move while casting as Ainz described, but even the simple act of walking around too much could easily break her concentration and disrupt the spell.

Essentially, it carried all the drawbacks of YGGDRASIL's Super-tier magic, except they were exacerbated to the point where the magic had absolutely no practical value for combat. Despite all its faults, it had its advantages as well.

For one, she was maintaining the large-scale formula, but it was not being used to actually influence reality in any way. Mechanically, it was nothing more than a light-show, and its mana consumption was appropriately low – less than her own passive regeneration, even.

Compared to using the entirety of her own meager magic capacity to reach an equivalent level of destructive power, the offensive Super-tier spells made for an excellent first strike, on the rare occasion her enemies would let her start the battle by preparing for a couple hours.

Aside from those spells meant for combat, there were a number of others she was intending to learn, such as terraforming with [The Creation] or manipulating space with [Change The World], though whether her imitation would be able to properly control either was yet to be determined. Finally, there was the enigmatic [Wish Upon a Star], which was already practically at the level of divinity.

Those possibilities promised to occupy years of her time to properly study every available effect, but that was a problem for the future.

Currently, she was more interested in making use of an indirect effect of Super-tier magic: One look at the massive formula was enough to announce its threat. None of the guards currently falling into a panic atop the wall had witnessed its power, but each had likely heard at least a few dubious rumors about the most recent Battle of Katze Plains.

There was no option for them to ignore this threat. Without an in-depth understanding of Super-tier magic, which it was extremely unlikely anybody in the Theocracy possessed, they had to assume that the same dreadful magic was currently being directed towards the core of their capital city.

Actually firing the spell was secondary; Tanya merely needed to bait out their 'Black Scripture' and their 'Supreme Treasure'. Once they came out, she could freely abort the spell and entrap them at her leisure. Until then, she could only focus on maintaining the spell while passively watching the two armies shift into action.

* * *

Getting an accurate understanding of a large-scale battle while actively fighting enemies on the ground was an extremely difficult task. The ability to send reports and relay orders amidst the chaos was vital to coordinating a simple horde into a functional army, and even the best commanders would be impaired without a clear view of the situation.

Over the years, technological developments such as the telegraph, radio, and telephone would better connect soldiers into a network, but this world had no such convenience. No doubt the existence magic such as [Message] had hampered its development, since a simpler alternative existed to electronic communication.

Specific doctrines on how to coordinate this magic were of course military secrets, with each nation developing systems and spells for improving their use. The unnamed telepathy network used by the cardinals was a recent invention for this purpose, one which had no spell equivalent in YGGDRASIL, as that functionality was instead provided by an in-game guild chat, but could not be extended to others who were not themselves players belonging to the guild Ainz Ooal Gown.

There were already a number of undead researchers working tirelessly in the great library to develop an equivalent spell and resolve some of the issues with [Message], including its lack of security against forged messages. However, a head-start of several centuries meant that the Theocracy, and to a lesser extent the Empire under Paradyne's guidance, could be considered far superior to the Sorcerous Kingdom in this regard.

Both countries had long since learned the importance of aerial reconnaissance in the form of magic casters using [Fly], often prioritizing this task above having them use third-tier magic offensively. Between using a few fireballs to burn a dozen common soldiers or providing a clear view of an entire army's movements, the latter was nearly always a superior choice.

The Kingdom had rarely employed this tactic, in part because of the extreme scarcity of magic casters, but also because their drafted levies weren't exactly trained to follow order much more complex than 'advance' and 'retreat'. For them, coordinating a hundred thousand foot soldiers would be no less herculean a task with a little more information on the fine details of the battle, so acquiring it was not a priority.

On the other hand, the Empire under Jircniv had been carefully specializing the Royal Air Guard for mage-hunting, using the vastly superior mobility of hippogriffs and griffins to dominate the sky and keep enemy magic casters grounded, thereby crippling the enemy's ability to scout, seizing the advantage for their own army.

Summoned angels could counter them to some extent, but since they were nowhere near as fast or powerful as the flying cavalry, a large number would need to be simultaneously created to repel their attacks, and even then, they lacked the speed to properly counterattack.

To Tanya, the concept was extremely similar to a primitive version of artillery observers, though not nearly as specialized, nor anywhere near as capable. Where the observers she knew would maintain an altitude of close to two kilometers and remain easily thirty kilometers away from the enemy, [Fly] magic was capped at around two hundred meters, with fifty being the norm.

In other words, unlike observer mages who flew outside the range of everything on the ground except artillery with airburst shells, these magic casters were well within the reach of a good arrow or crossbow bolt.

For the magic casters from the Theocracy, their target was within sight – wrapped in a dome of magic, clearly visible from any point on the wall. Yet, there was nothing they could do to her.

Any attackers, whether summoned angel or flying magic caster, would first have to fly through a hail of arrows and fiendishly accurate heavy crossbow bolts with enough power to ignore magic defenses outright.

Were they to miraculously dodge every one of those attacks, they would next have to fight their way through several dozen flying hippogriff knights, each of whom had a partner magic caster riding tandem. Of course, while continuing to evade the aforementioned barrage.

Finally, were they to somehow navigate an impossible number of projectiles and enemies, there was still the Demon Maid's invisible projectiles and the Mad-Eyed Archer's glowing arrows, either whom was easily capable of outranging the hundred meters or so a [Fireball] could travel.

Could they penetrate all three layers of defenses to reach the caster? No, not a chance. In the hour since the spell started, not a single angel had even made it close to the passing the first defensive line before getting filled with arrows and dissipating into particles of light.

For Captain Hansen and the Royal Air Guard tasked with stopping nonexistent threats who made it through, there was nothing to do but idly fly in circles above their camp. He had nothing to do except watch the progress of the battle from the sky.

"… This is what war has become?" (Hansen)

Up in the sky, even though the griffin's cruising speed was nowhere near its top speed, even the magic caster holding Hansen's back wouldn't be able to hear him clearly unless he spoke up.

At a little under one kilometer, the altitude a pure griffin could maintain was incomparably superior to a hippogriff. If not for its riders, the creature could climb higher still, but this much was more than sufficient for observing the situation and diving to attack any enemies flying below.

From such a height, none of the clattering from the battle on the surface could reach him; the only sound audible was that of the wind against his armor as they flew. Despite this, Hansen had enough experience to understand that the battle was abnormal.

The Theocracy obviously hadn't been expecting to be the ones attacking. Their attack was rough and poorly coordinated, with angels coming out one by one rather than as cohesive waves. The cavalry they sent out had rushed ahead of the infantry, their charge failing spectacularly before they could crash into the Death Knights.

Following after them, the mass of soldiers were basically only joining the fray as quickly as the single large gate would permit. Without knowing how much or how little time they had until the demon's magic would activate, they couldn't spare the delay to bring the entire garrison outside the walls and charge in a cohesive formation.

He watched the armored soldiers sail through the air upon being struck with the massive tower shields which the undead knights were using.

The scene, without any sound, could almost be called comedic.

If not for his awareness that those men were fellow humans being slaughtered in droves.

There was neither the honor of fighting as knights, the skill of competing magic casters, nor the dignity of two tacticians facing off with their armies. This was only a disorganized crowd of desperate men charging into a killing field to be massacred. Men desperate to protect their home, their families from the invaders who would exterminate them.

His griffin banked to the side and slowly made a turn. Hansen looked at the camp being defended. The tower which had been constructed with a single spell, and the demon who stood in front of it.

He hadn't been there to see it himself, but the accounts he heard from the knights were the same: The pure-white arcane dome which towered over the palisades of their forward base, the black mist which consumed an entire wing of the Kingdom's army, the abominations which rose out of the muck to trample an entire army.

There was no doubt in his mind, this was the very same magic. As much as he found it hard to believe there could exist other monsters on the Sorcerer King's level, there was no other way to describe the scene before him.

Except, this time the target was not one wing of the Kingdom's army, but the entire capital. Were those 'goats' to rampage, the number victims would not end at a hundred thousand.

It would be a calamity.

_If that magic was meant to demonstrate the Sorcerous Kingdom's power, just what is this meant to accomplish?_

_ Is continuing to watch this really the Emperor's justice?_

Hansen urged the griffin to descend. When they neared the ground, he called to the man behind him.

"Sorry, could you get off and act on your own for a while?" (Hansen)

"Captain? Is something wrong?"

"The situation in the sky is stable, I need to withdraw to the base for a bit. Join up with the men on the ground." (Hansen)

The magic caster looked a bit doubtful, but nonetheless nodded and jumped off the griffin's back, then started flying under his own magic while descending towards the second line.

Satisfied with the man's safety, Hansen turned again and flew in the direction of the magical dome.

* * *

One walking headache approached from the sky.

Tanya didn't him more than a glance as he landed a short distance away, jumping off his griffin and starting to run over.

This erratic behavior received a confused look from Neia and utter disinterest from CZ, but neither made any moves on top of that.

Hansen ran up to the dome, then slowed down and cautiously passed through it, stopping a short distance in front of Tanya.

"General, please stop this! The citizens of the Holy City are not the enemy!" (Hansen)

She ignored the nuisance.

"This isn't right! You can't do this!" (Hansen)

She continued to ignore him, or rather didn't want to expend the concentration necessary to reply.

"General!" (Hansen)

He yelled for a third time while taking another step closer, his hands unconsciously readying his spear.

In a flash, Tanya struck him with her rifle's stock. Though it felt light, it was a relic-class item, worthy of being called a sacred treasure. Even as a melee weapon, it was incredibly capable, and she currently couldn't spare the effort to hold back her strength.

With a crack, the blow caved in his breastplate and hurled him outside the dome.

For just a moment, the symbols flickered due to her distraction, but stabilized immediately after.

"Somebody execute him for that." (Tanya)

She wasn't sure if he was actually still alive, but it felt appropriate to trust his sturdiness if nothing else. On any other day she would have taken responsibility herself, but at the moment even getting those few words out was demanding.

The griffin which was standing by a short distance away roared when its master was attacked and tried to rush her, but its charge was stopped after a single step with an unseen attack blowing off half of its hind leg. As it staggered in confusion, a second silent shot from CZ tore through its head. The monster fell dead without understanding what happened.

She took a few steps towards where the man was lying, but stopped, her magic gun half-raised.

A different woman, one who should have been at the front lines. Despite wearing heavy full-plate, she had run up with enough speed to be out of breath, arriving just before Hansen had been thrown out. She came with her spear ready, but as it was yet unclear whether she was an enemy, CZ simply waited.

"L-Leinas, help m-" (Hansen)

"Ah, dammit, I thought you'd do something stupid when you flew back, but you went and actually did it. Imbecile." (Leinas)

"- do something about that-" (Hansen)

She ignored his pleas, placing one foot on his chest just above the wound to press him down, her spear at his neck.

"… why?" (Hansen)

He was barely able to squeeze out another word as he coughed the blood filling his lungs onto the spearhead.

"I spoke to Her Highness, and learned of her curse, and the magic items of His Majesty to suppress it. There is only one lord I must serve, and it is no longer your emperor." (Leinas)

There was anger in his eyes. The wound was severe, but he was not yet dead, and tried to brace with his arm to lift himself, but as expected when his opponent was one of the imperial Four Knights, the attempt was futile.

"-damn, you-" (Hansen)

In his state, Hansen's struggle was unable to shift her balance. Leinas drew the heavy spear back slightly, then quickly struck with an explosive force.

With a final twitch, his struggling stopped. Confirming this, Leinas stepped off the body.

"Your orders have been fulfilled." (Leinas)

Her words were quiet, yet resolute.

* * *

Tanya continued to manipulate the massive-scale magic circle around her. Nearly two hours had passed now, though to her it felt like she had been working for a full day. Even though it wasn't actually consuming any mana to use, the mental exhaustion was certainly building up.

Still, according to the previous trial run, so long as there were no abnormalities from using it in battle, the casting time was coming to a close.

She began casting with the expectation that she would be attacked. While it wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that she wasn't, needless to say, the source had not been the ones she was waiting for.

A few more minutes passed, and as predicted, she felt the burden of the spell vanish in an instant. The 'system' accepted the 'key', taking over the Super-tier magic from her and preparing it to activate. In a second, the dome expanded with a tower of a dozen circles of varying sizes growing above her.

The spell was ready.

As for Tanya, just as she gave up control over the spell, she started to panic.

_Dammit, what the hell? __They should know what this is, w__hy isn't anybody coming, I'm here trying to destroy your city, are you really going to let that happen?_

_ I feel like a child waving a nuke around for attention, only to get radio silence in response. Ah, this could be bad. I didn't expect them to actually let me finish, but picking a different spell was definitely the right choice, else this really would be a disaster._

_ Did those cardinals seriously flee the city with the treasure? If so, I am genuinely screwed. Ahh, Demiurge would definitely try to kill me for that. Time to run away?_

The spell wasn't supposed to be used, only threatened as bait. With that in mind, she was glad to have had the foresight to at least not pick the most destructive Super-tier spell out of all the options.

The tower of magic circles finished, now level with the thirty meter fortress she had created before. In the end, it was barely necessary, with the disappointing response from the Theocracy.

The spell was fully prepared, the only course left was to fire.

With a sigh, Tanya raised her rifle, aimed directly upwards. Even without using it as an actual gun, it was the scepter this spell was linked to, and so the triggers were shared.

"Pseudo-Super-tier spell – [Sword of Damocles]!"

* * *

**Part 8**

A single bolt of light shot into the sky from the center of the great magic dome. As it passed through the center of each ring, they rose into the sky, vanishing alongside the bolt. For a few seconds, everything was silent, as onlookers from every direction watched the beacon fly into space.

Several hundred thousand people held their breath, unsure of what was to come.

One second, two. All was quiet.

The next, the clouds above the city were pierced by a new bolt, incomparably greater than the first. Its brilliant radiance glowed greater than the sun itself, drawing all eyes to the center of the city just in time to watch the bolt of pure light from the sky strike the Cathedral Tower.

White stone and a cloud of dust flew out in every direction with the blast. Moments later, the force of the shockwave passed through the inner city, breaking windows and knocking anybody near enough off their feet.

As every single man, woman, and child in the Holy City watched, the last base of their Six Gods was shattered into mere rubble. When the dust cleared, only two of its floors were left intact, surrounded by nothing but rubble.

Super-tier spell, [Sword of Damocles]. An 'orbital weapon' with an enormous damage bonus against structures. Like automatons and magic guns, this spell was first introduced with the "Valkyrie's Downfall" expansion, in response to complaints about the lack of an effective counter to enemy players holed up inside fortifications.

Its direct damage against enemies in the field was mediocre compared to [Fallen Down] even before adding the bonus damage against undead, but only a base on the level of Nazarick's floors, with all the cash items spent to improve them, could survive a direct strike.

Were the spell used, the defenders would effectively have two choices: Sit still and take the hit, pitting their own base's defensive bonuses against the amplified damage of the spell targeting a structure, or come out to stop the spell, which would do little against a group of level 100 players when attacking them directly.

If they chose not to respond, the damage their base would take – and thus the cost to repair afterwards – could easily exceed the profit from winning the fight. On the other hand, by leaving, they would have the advantage of fighting against an enemy who had already expended their Super-tier magic before the battle started properly.

With or without the existence of this spell, battles would favor the defenders, but after its introduction, PVP raids against enemy bases suddenly became much more engaging assaults, instead of the slow, grinding sieges of the past.

For a PVP-focused guild role-playing as evil such as Ainz Ooal Gown, the spell became a staple for flushing stubborn opponents out to fight. Although, by being among the first adopters who started making use of the spell shortly after its release, a number of smaller guilds who hadn't heard of the spell had lost sections of their bases due to their not understand the spell's effects, causing a spike in Ainz Ooal Gown's infamy. That series of raids had been one of the many dominoes which triggered the 1,500 member raid on Nazarick, as a number of guilds tried to take revenge for these attacks.

With the decline of the guild's membership, it had been well over a year since the last time Ainz participated in an offensive raid, so the spell had been gathering metaphoric dust in his spellbook.

From a couple kilometers away, Tanya watched her attack land, the explosion bloom to life as the tower burst into bits. A few seconds later, the infrasound passed by her, the pressure wave only lifting her hair slightly as if by a sudden gust of wind.

She smiled as the ground shook, once from the initial impact, followed by a few light aftershocks as massive bricks struck the ground.

"There's something strangely satisfying about watching explosions, or rather, causing them." (Tanya)

These words were spoken to nobody in particular, and indeed were mostly drowned out by the rumbling of the earth.

With the spell no longer taking up the entirety of her concentration, she set about raising her defensive shell, restoring her numerous support formulas, and reconnecting her perception to once again bring the entire world within detection.

Everything surrounding her was laid bare. Immediately, her calm smile turned ferocious. She raised the rifle and rapidly fired three times. Two were parried out of the air, but the third struck flesh – no, armor.

Appearing out of invisibility which had been cancelled by receiving that attack, the very same Captain of the Black Scripture drew back, clutching his wounded shoulder.

"I almost didn't see you there, welcome, welcome! You have no idea how happy I am to see you all right now!" (Tanya)

Tanya merrily called out to the would-be attacker. The cheerfulness was genuine, for they had not escaped as she had feared, but instead waited until this moment. She had been prepared to take the first hit with her defenses partially down as she was preparing the Super-tier magic, but this timing was truly the best possible outcome.

She fired two more shots, neither directed towards the captain himself, but instead to the distance, past either side of him. The first struck a large shield as it was blocked from hitting a mage behind him, the second deflected by a man with a large axe, who swung it with incredible dexterity to parry the shot aimed for his foot.

"Hm… ten of you, is it?" (Tanya)

While making a point of leaving the assassin-looking man keeping his distance out of her count, she again called out to them. The rest, with the invisibility evidently no longer effective, cancelled it to minimize their wasted magic.

_Still, only eleven, the extra __who the __Hanzo mentioned isn't here, either. Are they still holding back? More importantly, did they bring the item?_

The wielder should be female, and a replacement member. Just from watching their movements up until now, Tanya couldn't say for certain which it was. One woman dressed like a priest, another as a loose mage, and the third, a girl in a decorated silver dress.

Going by age it should be the last of the three, but the staves held by each of them appeared ordinary enough, so she couldn't identify the weapon with certainty.

"… How to proceed?" (CZ)

"Pull back and watch for now. I'm going to play around with them for a bit." (Tanya)

"… Understood." (CZ)

CZ confirmed her orders, then jumped back, out of the partial encirclement by the Black Scripture.

This was the signal for the second scenario: The enemies were capable, and the World-Class Item was unconfirmed.

Broadly speaking, they had prepared for three situations.

The first, the enemies were pushovers, and the mind-controlling item was in plain view, or they opened by attempting to use it. In the case of the former, Tanya and CZ would sweep through them immediately, incapacitating them to take the item, then calling for cleanup. As for the latter, Tanya would focus on seizing the item without delay, then either fight or retreat after stealing the item, depending on their strength. Either way, combat would begin immediately, and CZ would respond without being ordered otherwise.

In the case of the third, the enemies would be overwhelmingly powerful, to the point where the two of them would be overwhelmed within a minute. Should that happen, the Hanzos watching over them would close in, delaying the enemies long enough for a team comprised of several Floor Guardians to be called in, who would then take over the fight.

Incidentally, there was a fourth case, one which Tanya had not been informed of. In the event that she was successfully mind-controlled, CZ was to immediately abandon her and retreat, then proceed with the third plan. Were CZ to be targeted with the mind-control, Tanya had similar orders to abandon her, proceeding with the first plan to seize the item by any means necessary, or the third if the enemy could not be defeated. Her loss would be unfortunate, but the gold cost of resurrection was only a tiny fraction of what Shalltear's had taken, so it was considered just barely permissible.

With this second plan, Tanya would take the lead in fighting, engaging the Black Scripture with a single opponent to bait the use of the World-Class Item. CZ should currently be communicating with the rest of Nazarick, who in turn would be prepared to launch an ambush at a moment's notice, should she feel the need to escalate to the third plan.

In other words, she could call for relief at any time, at the cost of only a minor demerit to her combat record. With that, she was free to take part in some light exercise of her own.

Tanya started walking forwards. Without caring about the other members moving to encircle her, she continued to boldly approach the captain directly.

"Come on, show me what you have, self-proclaimed 'strongest protectors of humanity'!" (Tanya)

She dashed to close the last few meters to the captain, drawing a dagger from the air. Gathering a mass of mana into her arm, she applied a massive boost to her strength for a single moment, using the dagger to strike aside the spearhead with the force of a truck.

The unthinkable power of the strike, delivered by a ranged combatant who had suddenly charged into melee combat, was easily enough to knock the spear out of her way.

Although, he unexpectedly persistently held onto the spear, returning it to its original path only a fraction of a second later, but by then she had already passed by his ideal range, placing the two of them close enough to embrace.

Her right hand no longer held the rifle, which had been stored during the maneuver, but instead smashed into the center of his chest as a fist with the exact same obscene power. A thunderous crash resounded as he was thrown away by the impact.

The next instant, she was again holding the rifle, crouching to take a shot at the person now flying away. One shot hit, the followup deflected with the spear as he spun in midair, landing on his feet and sliding across the ground to stop some twenty meters away.

"Wow, all that and you're not even half-dead? That equipment is impressive, yet the user's skill is a disappointment…" (Tanya)

In a single second, she had rushed him with the peak of her magical enhancement, trying to incapacitate the strongest enemy present early. Despite attacking with strikes powerful enough to transform an ordinary human into chunks of meat, the equipment he was wearing, in conjunction with the bonuses from his own relatively high level, meant that he suffered nothing worse than a couple broken bones.

Still, the way Tanya saw it, his strength and equipment was being wasted on the user. She had switched weapons three times in the span of a second to get past his guard, yet the first was enough to break it, if only for an instant. It seemed his age was genuine, and he lacked individual combat experience, particularly against powerful humanoid opponents.

This was her conclusion, and while it wasn't exactly wrong, in reality it was a simple difference of speed and power. She had moved an exorbitant amount of magic into strengthening her body, boosting her physical status to be on par with Cocytus, if only for that single second. No human was capable of responding to that, and escaping severe injuries was a considerable achievement.

"Dammit, she still has magic to spare! Her peak is likely compatible with the Vampire, fight with the assumption that getting hit means instant death!"

He shouted orders and a warning while righting his fighting stance, but did not charge in again immediately.

"Vampire?" (Tanya)

Tanya tried to provoke some more self-incrimination out of him, but the only response was a pair of [Shock Lances] from either direction: 4th tier spells which were effectively a straight upgrade to [Lightning].

Theoretically, they were more effective than most magic against demons, but this assumption was only true for natural resistances. The elemental resistance provided by her armor made it her third-highest resistance, after fire and darkness.

However, that was irrelevant, since elemental resistances would only apply to attacks which could hit her body directly. She completely ignored them, and both bolts scattered harmlessly against her defensive shell, filling the air around her with a white electrical fuzz.

Neither of the two casters – the cloaked wizard and mage woman – seemed surprised by this outcome. Instead, the ones who might suffer as a result were three melee attackers trying to simultaneously close in on her from different directions.

The bolts, had they hit, were meant to have stunned her momentarily, allowing each of them to deal a harsh blow to her. In the current state, the light where the magic clashed with her shell would still have blinded her to the incoming attacks, except that Tanya's detection was primarily magical, not optical. It instead served the opposite purpose, concealing the target they were supposed to be attacking.

This coordination, organized on the fly against a largely unknown opponent, was impressive. The teamwork which could suppress even a mid-class dragon was admirable, but the individual strength of most of the members was far too low to be a threat. That captain alone might be higher-leveled than the Pleiades, but taking the two teams as a whole, they were vastly inferior.

Three massive weapons: axe, sword, and spiked shield, struck her directly – and passed through.

Simultaneously, the colossal man wielding the axe was stabbed in the back of the knee with a long, pitch-black dagger. The curse it carried covered his leg, and with his balance ruined by having one leg disabled, Tanya swept his other foot with a low kick, filled with magic to the weight of a dump truck. His plate boots were high-class, yet utterly inadequate against her attack.

With his remaining leg shattered into fragments, he began falling as per gravity's request, but not before swinging the oversized axe down, putting his collapsing bulk behind the weapon for an earth-shattering swing.

At a speed faster than he could perceive, this too was lightly sidestepped by Tanya, who followed up with a knee to the chest, turning the 'Strongest Human' into a cannonball bound for the man with the sword, who aborted his attack to catch his ally.

Using their combined momentum, the two withdrew towards the priest woman, who had finished healing the captain's injuries. Tanya ignored them, allowing them to retreat while turning to the third, a slightly smaller (but still huge) man holding a pair of shields.

While still at near melee range, she took a single step back and again drew the rifle which had vanished earlier, aimed for the man's head, and shot once.

The mass of energy pinged off his tower shield harmlessly, but in the process of defending himself, he was made to block his own line of sight for just the instant it took her to close in, once again empty-handed.

"[Paralysis]" (Tanya)

He failed to fully resist, but was nonetheless strong enough to recover after only a second. However, in that second, Tanya grabbed the shield herself. Upon doing so, she jumped up, flying into the air while still carrying both the man and his shield. If not for the paralysis, he could simply have released the shield, though he was presently incapable of doing so.

Compared to Tanya alone, his body weight was a major burden, but the two were nonetheless ten meters above the ground after only that brief lapse.

As he regained the use of his limbs and tried to let go, Tanya immediately reversed her momentum, applying that very same acceleration in the opposite direction. The weight which made lifting him difficult now served to hasten his fall as Tanya used his own shield to smash him against the supreme blunt weapon that was the earth.

The impact left a crater under his back. While he was definitely from it unconscious, the collision was not fatal.

"Thirty seconds in, and only two disabled… I'll admit, you're doing better than I had expected. You're a tenacious lot, but is that all?" (Tanya)

The battle saw a momentary lull, and Tanya again taunted the remaining Black Scripture. Two members were out of the fight, while she had not taken a single scratch. Their magic shown to be laughably ineffective, the strongest members present instantly overpowered in hand-to-hand combat by a single mage.

A chain flew towards her with incredible speed, but this too bounced off her defensive shell, finding no purchase to latch on to, nor anything which could be bound. Her response was a penetrating formula shot without bothering to look at her target, which returned with a far greater speed, passing through his right shoulder before he could even blink. Blood and bone flew from the wound, and the disconnected arm dropped limp onto the floor.

A summoning circle appeared in front of another member, but-

"[Death]" (Tanya)

One word from Tanya, and the gigantic lizard perished before even fully emerging into the physical world.

There was no need for her to even look away from the captain. Giving an exaggerated bow,

"My apologies, I seem to have miscounted, make that four. Please forgive my mistake." (Tanya)

The captain himself was the only one worth her attention, the rest were nuisances not worth the effort of counting. At this rate, the only future for them was a humiliating defeat – or so she implied.

They had gone into the battle assuming her magic would be exhausted, yet here she was, overwhelming them with physical might alone – or so it appeared to them.

Enhancement magic in this world would take the form of a discreet spell, not the continuous formulas she had been trained to use. This absolute difference between them was far from sustainable, though at the current rate the battle was progressing, she would win with plenty of leeway. At least, against this group.

Her worry rested in the unrevealed last member, the other 'god-kin' said to be equipped with weapons and armor on par with the Guardians. She needed to overpower them enough to force the use of the World-Class Item, yet displaying overwhelming force required her to burn an appropriate amount of mana.

Since the moment combat began, simply winning had never been her concern.

"Would you like to continue?" (Tanya)

She gave one more push.

The captain shot forward like an arrow, spear glowing and poised to strike, leaving a straight trail directly towards her.

With such a primitive trajectory, dodging it was certainly an option, but she instead received it head-on.

"[Penetrate Maximize Magic: Smite Evil]!"

The tip of the spear met Tanya's defensive shell, leaving a web of cracks from the point of contact, but failed to pierce her defenses.

His spell, on the other hand, shot out from the point, passing through and for the first time, hitting her directly… and, it tickled. She could only tilt her head in confusion, honestly surprised by the complete lack of effect from what seemed to be a trump card of his.

"Use it!"

He shouted a command. This should have been issued after she was staggered by the attack, rather than mildly puzzled. Regardless, Tanya made no effort to respond.

From the side, the girl wearing a silver dress, who up until then had limited herself to buffing her allies, closed her hands together as if in prayer. The eastern dragon engraved on her clothing began to glow, brightening by the second.

"Tch. [Force Explosion]!" (Tanya)

Tanya blew away the captain still engaging her, then took aim at the girl.

Before she could shoot, the dragon came to life, leaving the garment to rush towards her.

Her view was dyed with the dazzling brightness, as the dragon passed into her, clouding her entire vision with an indescribable luminance.

Everybody was still. The captain who had been shot a distance away, the girl who activated the items, the remaining members, and Tanya herself.

* * *

One step forward. Nobody moved except her. Nobody could move except her.

_[Silent Time Stop]_

The unreasonable magic which isolated her into a motionless world of her own, as Tanya now calmly walked towards the caster.

_I see, so it wasn't a weapon, but the dress itself, that is their sacred treasure? I expected some flashy weapon, but a Chinese dress? Your reasoning is ridiculous, evil god. No wonder I didn't recognize it, I was looking for the wrong thing the whole time._

She caressed the dress the girl was wearing, but without being able to interact with the outside world, all she felt was the texture of smooth stone. Taking it like this would be impossible.

_This is it, without a doubt. Well, if a World-Class Item can be an infinitely-powerful wooden club, surely it can be a dress as well. Fine, then._

Tanya took one step back, pressing the barrel of her rifle directly against the girl's head.

_I hate to do this, but you're an enemy combatant. __Something like that is too dangerous to be left alone._

There were a few seconds left in the [Time Stop]. All time-manipulation spells lasted precisely thirty seconds from the moment they were cast. It took lots of experience for a player to learn how to add the base activation time of an attack spell, its casting time, and a manual delay to time its effects for immediately after time returns to normal.

That was the case for tiered magic. Tanya only needed to prepare a formula and shoot.

With her aim set, she waited until precisely 29.9 seconds had passed since the start.

At the exact moment color returned to the world, she pulled the trigger.

* * *

In the same instant, their victory was certain, and their defeat assured.

The demon who was pinned in place by the captain's attack was controlled, but when they next blinked, she was gone. When they next spotted her, she was holding onto the headless body of their newest member, the promising young enchanter tasked with succeeding the Supreme Treasure.

Tanya grabbed the fabric of the dress, tearing it off the girl's body with her full strength. Except, as expected of a World-Class Item with functionally infinite durability, what tore was not the cloth, but the girl's arms as they were dislocated to disrobe her in a single motion. Without a speck of blood to stain it, the garment was in Tanya's hands before anybody could respond.

"[All Appraisal Magic Item]" (Tanya)

World-Class Item #76, [Downfall of Castle and Country (Ruinous Beauty)]. Unconditional mind-control, bypassing all resistances and immunities. Item's user must be either female or sexless. Full activation consumes 10 levels for permanent control, or 24 hours of control at no level cost. Limit one simultaneous controlled target. Effect which cannot be cancelled willingly without first killing the target. Upon successful activation, item cannot be reused for 72 hours.

_I see, so it really was something like this._

A log of information flowed into Tanya's head upon her reciting the appraisal spell. There were some additional bits of what she could only assume to be in-game lore, but she ignored those.

She jumped into the air, flying above them, as if having lost interest in them now that time treasure was hers. A number of magic attacks came towards her, but she continued to simply ignore them and allowed each to disperse against her own defenses.

Doing so was admittedly an outright waste of magic, but the task was already finished. Nobody would blame her even if she chose to retreat at this point.

She quickly signaled her success to CZ, who would in turn relay that to Ainz.

All in all, she was uncertain about how it would go for a time, but at long last, her mission was over.

Immediately after this thought passed though her mind, she dove forward as a large sickle passed by where her neck had been only moments prior.

She hadn't let down her guard, the attack had simply come flying towards her at a speed where she could no longer evade effortlessly.

The sudden assault failed to actually cut her. However, she felt a chill upon noticing that her shell had been cut through as if it wasn't even there.

She immediately restored it while putting in twice as much mana to strengthen it, preparing a short-distance teleportation spell to escape again, but no pursuit came. The girl who had appeared out of nowhere only continued standing in the air, looking over the current state of the Black Scripture.

"They told me to come back you up just in case, but… you lost this badly, really?"

"Our initial estimate was far too simple… she overwhelmed us singlehandedly… the Supreme Treasure was ineffective, her true form may be that of a Demonic Dragon Lord…"

The captain staggered to his feet, the injuries from taking a 8th tier spell point-blank without defending having been piled on the fatigue and minor wounds from before.

"Oh. So it really was her? Ah, dammit, why'd it have to be a girl…"

Upon hearing of her teammates' annihilation, she merely looked at Tanya with sincere disappointment.

"Well, she seems like she'll at least make for an…"

Her sentence was interrupted by the sight of a silver dragon of pure light rising out of the dress the demon was wearing.

"… Eh?"

She could only let out a stupefied sound as her consciousness was dyed white, and vanished into nothingness, consumed by the very same World-Class Item.

_No, did she really expect me to fight her…? Maybe on a good day, but if she came before they brought out the item, I really would have had to call for Plan C._

_ … To think the day would come when I stop time to change clothes in the middle of a battlefield._

There didn't appear to be any problems with her field test. For once, an experimental item seemed to be working exactly as described.

"Now then, answer my questions. Is every member of your 'Black Scripture' currently gathered here?" (Tanya)

Tanya directed her question to the girl still standing in the air, in a half-conscious state.

"No, there is one additional member, 'Thousand Mile Astrologer', who has locked herself in her room and refused to take part in the battle."

As soon as the order was issued, light returned to her eyes, and she began going beyond answering the exact question to honestly explain their circumstances in detail.

"Her combat strength?" (Tanya)

"Not much to speak of, around second from the bottom. Her specialty is information-gathering."

"Lead the Hanzos to capture her alive, as well as anybody of importance you encounter. Recover them, the complete contents of your treasury, and all intelligence documents." (Tanya)

"As you wish."

She ran through the air towards the center of the city. Though still invisible, the Hanzos broke off to follow after her, in accordance to the orders which applied to them as well. From the way the girl could understand the meaning of 'Hanzos' without seeing them, some additional information was likely being transmitted through an invisible link between them.

Based on their exchange, Tanya made the assumption that this was as much a charm as mind-control, since the girl was willingly offering additional details and opinions she had not been explicitly asked for. This was [Downfall of Castle and Country (Ruinous Beauty)], the treasure representing ultimate beauty which could bewitch a king to drive his country into ruin by his own volition; the label worked on several levels.

Tanya looked back down on the few still-standing members of the Black Scripture. After having their hope crushed before their eyes no less than three times in quick succession, they were looking understandably dejected. Even the ineffective magic attacks had entirely stopped now, though she was unsure whether this was due to resignation or running low on magic power.

For the sake of completion, she shot the assassin slowly trying to edge away from the group with his invisibility. He was not seriously a threat, but letting any of them escape would cause more problems down the line. Before he noticed he was being attacked, he fell clutching his heavily bleeding leg.

Then, she waited. It was almost time.

"This whole time, have you been holding back to capture us?"

The captain was standing again, having healed up using a magic item. His resilience continued to impress her. It was far too late to change anything now, so she lost nothing by simply answering him honestly.

"You noticed? Well, close, but not quite. I was given strict orders forbidding me from granting that mercy, new members aside." (Tanya)

Seeing his confusion, she clarified the reason.

"You controlled and forced him to kill one of his beloved children… there is no possible way you could have angered him any more than that. At this point I'd honestly recommend killing yourselves while you have the chance, but… even that might not be enough to escape at this point. Sorry." (Tanya)

From him, there would be no pity for others as a former human. Those who had laid their hands on one of his prized treasures, even if unknowing and in self-defense, would receive no forgiveness.

In that moment, he understood the full situation, and smiled.

"So that one was yours, after all… if you don't mind hearing one last request… she's a strange one, but please fulfill her wish."

Was this a sliver of trust in return for her sincerity, or simple desperation with nothing to lose?

Tanya gave no answer, instead opting to turn kneel in the opposite direction.

On the ground behind her, a void tore the empty air, and through it stepped a skeleton dressed in a majestic robe, and a bright dark elf holding a scroll nearly as tall as her.

The Black Scripture didn't need to be told, this was without a doubt the Sorcerer King.

"Good work. Those are the ones responsible for that incident?" (Ainz)

His commanding voice was enough to strike fear into all humans present. Just as she had implied, they were even worse than insects in his empty eyes; his similarity with the god they worshiped did not ease their terror, but rather intensified it to a new level. The being they had made an enemy of was, an unliving god.

"They are, without a doubt. I confirmed the effectiveness of their sacred treasure myself." (Tanya)

"Then there is no need for further delay. Aura, use it." (Ainz)

Aura unfurled the scroll – [Depiction of Mountains and Rivers].

One could call it irony for them to be trapped by a World-Class Item in the end, brought out by Ainz due to his caution after they had used one before. If not for a series of incredible coincidences, this entire war might never have been.

The landscape was painted over, and they vanished. Ainz looked at Aura, who nodded in confirmation, then both of them descended into the painted world as well.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Theocracy's desperate attack was turning into a rout. Eight thousand corpses littered the area, but the majority of the army retreated back behind the gates, shutting them behind themselves.

There was no need to pursue them. With their own trump card having been turned against them, it should only be a matter of time until she and the Hanzos return with the majority of their government in tow. If they still refused to surrender, the city could simply be taken using overwhelming force. All threats were neutralized and the World-Class Item was in her hands, so there was no further use for subtlety.

Regardless, the cleanup and post-war manipulation would fall to Demiurge, so there was no need for further action on her part, aside from standing guard at the return point while Ainz finished whatever he needed to do inside the sealed world.

In the meantime, her thoughts were elsewhere.

_… Can I change out of this thing yet?_

* * *

A/N: Well, that went long. Hope it was worth the wait.

A few months ago, the chapter was originally supposed to end with an ambush by the Platinum Dragon Lord's armor, who overpowers Tanya until Shalltear arrives to as reinforcements. PDL recognizes Shalltear from their first encounter, and from that starts to put together the whole story, about the relationship between Ainz, Momon, and Shalltear.

At least, that was the plan. Then Overlord 14 came out, and we saw the cover art.

Yeah, that scene got scrapped.


	14. Volume 2, Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Part 1**

Two hours passed, then Ainz and Aura reappeared in the painted field. Around them, the artistic scenery of an alternate field quickly began shrinking in on itself, before sinking into the ground, vanishing without a trace.

Excepting the two of them, nobody else returned. Those who had been dragged in by the two of them did not reappear even as remains.

Tanya greeted them on one knee, as was proper since Aura was watching, but the two passed by without a word.

For an instant, her eyes met with Aura's, who glanced over with a look which could perhaps indicate concern, but the elf immediately broke contact and returned her attention to Ainz's surroundings. As for Ainz, her experience with discerning people's intentions did not extend to unchanging skulls. His could just as easily reflect satisfaction as disappointment, it all looked the same to her.

After taking just a few steps, Ainz opened a [Gate] and passed through, with Aura following immediately behind him. As soon as he passed through, the portal shut behind them.

_What's with him, when he finally settled his grudge._

While thinking such unflattering thoughts, Tanya stood back up, lightly stretching more out of habit than in response to any physical exhaustion. She had been waiting for two hours, after all, long enough for the magic power she had expended to mostly recover.

A short while later, a black-and-white figure approached quietly from the direction of the city, dragging a bound and gagged second girl behind her.

Her timing was far too precise to be coincidence. Did [Downfall of Castle and Country] permit enough freedom for her to choose when to return, or was it a result of her following an unconscious order from Tanya, who didn't want her to run into Ainz yet, lest his latent anger make him kill the two before she could make use of them, or at very least, get what intelligence they possessed out of them.

Truthfully, she wasn't interested in the last member of the Black Scripture, the girl who was for some reason wearing an out-of-place school uniform. However, there was no doubt that she was just as guilty as the rest of the members for controlling Shalltear, at least in his eyes. No matter what happened from here on, there was no excusing that sin. At best, they might avoid torture and execution if they were shown to be more useful left alive.

To that end, she would present them directly to Demiurge, who could find the most efficient way to use a person, instead of Ainz, who despite being mostly emotionless, had a tendency to erupt with rage whenever his guildmates or NPCs were threatened. And while Tanya wouldn't lose anything even if they were simply killed, doing so would be a waste of talent.

One girl happily kneeled in front of her, while the other was bound and squirming in terror, with none of the determination of the rest even in facing off against death incarnate.

"Explain, how did your mission go?" (Tanya)

Tanya phrased her question as an order.

"Four cardinals and two ministers were captured by your servants, one of each killed when the tower collapsed. The rest were never in the city, but gathering the remainder of the army further south."

"So it won't end that quickly? Fine. Documents, treasures?" (Tanya)

"All but one of your Hanzos remained to sort through the documents. I went ahead to clear out the treasury, the contents are in these bags."

Just as she had said, she was carrying several thick magic backpacks on her back, which had been taken out from the tower's treasury to store the remainder of its contents.

"Add all your equipment, and hers." (Tanya)

"As you wish."

This was an order, and it was executed without hesitation, filling another backpack with the weapons and armor she was carrying.

Seeing her eagerness to obey gave Tanya a worrying premonition. Concerned with the wording she had used in her order, she pulled out a pair of thick cloaks, throwing one on each of the girls in advance.

Having prevented any accidents which might have otherwise occurred, she began digging through the backpacks.

They were the same Infinite Backpacks Ainz would occasionally bring out, with 500 kilograms of inventory space, but to the holder, the weight of only a single empty bag. She received a dozen of these, each completely filled to capacity.

Gold, gems, crystals, and coins. Swords, spears, halberds, and daggers. Helmets, boots, and shields. The wealth contained was immeasurable, incomparably greater than anything Tanya had seen in her lives. While she doubted it could match whatever treasure the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick was hiding, this was an eye-popping volume of riches to behold.

Tanya reached in and pulled out a few gold coins: thick, impressive lumps of currency, but clearly not the simple gold coins of any nearby country. This was YGGDRASIL gold, impossible to freely spend in the new world. Any common coinage would have already been taken out and spent, leaving only the treasured coins, the currency of the Six Gods which the Theocracy wouldn't dare to melt down into usable wealth.

She dropped the coins back in, which to her petty disappointment, landed without the expected clanking, as the contents of the backpack were no ordinary space.

Nothing she was interested in acquiring could be bought with simple money, so it was mostly worthless to her.

The weapons and armor were similarly unexciting. They had monetary value, and a number were created with a sizeable amount of mana. Finding one she could personally make use of in combat was another issue altogether.

She couldn't find a single weapon remotely resembling a firearm, and while there were a number of knives and daggers scattered within, none stuck out as superior to the one she was currently using.

Disappointed, she set down the backpack filled with weapons, then passed over the various armor just as quickly. As with the weapons, a few were quality items, but finding usable equipment was not as simple as picking the piece charged with the most magic, but would require appraising every single one of the hundreds of items.

Though doing so wouldn't be difficult, she simply didn't have the time to spend on what would likely end up being a fruitless effort. Turning them over, letting Pandora's Actor examine and catalogue each item, then requesting anything usable through the proper channels was a simpler path to the same result.

After all, nearly all the NPCs in Nazarick were already attached to the equipment provided by their own creators; They were unlikely to switch it out, even if the alternative was a numerically superior item. Therefore, her attempt to get that equipment for herself afterwards was unlikely to be met with competition, by process of elimination.

Tanya moved on to the next pack, pulling out a transparent, pale-blue crystal. It lacked the cut of a gemstone which might be used in the place of currency or art-piece, yet too large and clean to be a mere pretty rock. Moreover, several dozen of these were being stored alongside piles of literal gold, so they should have considerable value.

"What are these…?" (Tanya)

"Spell-sealing crystals, they store a single spell to be cast freely at a later time. Although, the ones left behind here are just empty trash, all the ones filled by the gods' magic were already taken out of the capital… there should be around ten of them left?"

The girl who had finished taking off all her equipment, and now wore nothing but the cloak thrown onto her, answered the question.

"Hmm, something like that existed?" (Tanya)

That could certainly come in handy, if used to store some of the more expensive spells to be used freely. She analyzed it with a quick spell to confirm the details.

_[Spell-Sealing Crystal] (Empty) (Legendary), A mystic crystal of the highest order, capable of storing any magic except Super-tier magic. Consumable, Single-use._

She let some magic power flow into the crystal as a test, and just as described, it flowed in without the slightest resistance, being absorbed as if it were draining into a bottomless void.

"You must be joking, a material like this exists…" (Tanya)

Tanya immediately pocketed the lot of them.

Satisfied with the prize, she haphazardly threw the remaining backpacks into her inventory.

"Now then…" (Tanya)

From here, her next step should be to arrange a meeting with Demiurge – except he was busy with whatever Ainz needed from him. He would make contact her from his end once that was done. Then, she would go and present-

"Come to think of it, who are you?" (Tanya)

The thought occurred to her that she didn't know their names. It wasn't an issue when they were enemies to be disposed of, but now they might become disposable tools instead, or depending on how things play out, maybe even disposable colleagues.

"… The Extra Seat of the Black Scripture."

The mind-control was a composite of extremely potent Charm and Dominate effects, but the latter would only prevent lies, not necessarily take effect and force an answer unless an order was given. So, she gave one.

"Name yourself." (Tanya)

"Title, 'Certain Death' (Zesshi Zetsumei), no personal name."

"Japanese?" (Tanya)

The title she heard was clearly spoken in untranslated Japanese, but judging from Zesshi's lack of reaction, the meaning of that was lost on her. Tanya continued her interrogation.

"Zesshi it is, then. Who gave you that name?" (Tanya)

"It was the undead serving Surshana-sama. In the last two centuries, he's only comes out of his temple to give out titles, so I didn't bother to learn his name." (Zesshi)

Tanya gave up on her for the time being, walking over to the other girl, crouching down to ungag her.

"Right. Same questions to you." (Tanya)

"-T-Title, 'Thousand Mile Astrologer' (Sensei Senri)… personal name-"

"Let's go with Senri. The undead?" (Tanya)

"…"

"You can either make me use the 8th tier spell [Dominate] to get answers, or let me report your cooperation to my superiors. Your choice." (Tanya)

The fear in Senri's eyes was renewed at the mention of myth-level magic as a casual threat.

She had been watching merely hours ago as the tower above her was erased, undeterred by the myriad barriers and enchantments holding it together. This was no mere bluff.

"-T-The undead is the first servant created by the God of Death, Surshana-sama, called Rufus. His head temple is hidden in the south-east of the Theocracy." (Senri)

"Another target, wonderful." (Tanya)

Tanya cut the bindings on Senri's limbs, letting her stand up.

Even with her equipment taken away, she was being given the opportunity to cast some magic at the defenseless Tanya who was walking away from her.

She didn't take it, grabbing the cloak, wrapping it tightly around herself; Any will to resist had long since been torn out of her.

"Very good. With this, introductions are finished." (Tanya)

Tanya theatrically snapped her fingers, spawning a table and a single chair, which she sat and leaned back on.

"Let's begin the interview. What value do you think you can bring to our company?" (Tanya)

* * *

**Part 2**

"Excuse me, Demiurge-sama… and, Albedo-sama." (Tanya)

Tanya passed through her [Gate], leaving it open behind her. Demiurge had specified this room out of the E-Rantel castle, but unexpectedly also had to greet Albedo as soon as she entered.

"Ara, would it be an issue for me to hear what you have to say?" (Albedo)

"No, of course not, I'm surprised to see you here today, what with how busy you must be." (Tanya)

"So you do understand that what you're doing is just adding to my work…" (Albedo)

"Then let us not waste any more of your time with smalltalk. It's a question of how to handle these two from here on." (Tanya)

The two, Zesshi and Senri, were led through the [Gate], upon which they were immediately subjected to cold gazes from both Demiurge and Albedo.

"Prostrate." (Demiurge)

As they stood, Demiurge spoke, or rather commanded the two of them.

The latter immediately dropped to her knees and slammed her face into the ground from his order, while the former turned to Tanya for confirmation, and, as soon as she nodded, proceeded to do exactly the same thing.

"… What are those?" (Albedo)

Albedo looked at all three of them, Tanya included, with the eyes one might otherwise direct only at cockroaches and lesser vermin. Had she brought in a pair of mud-covered, rabid hounds off the side of the road, they would have gotten a warmer reception.

"The one on the left was the Theocracy's secret weapon, who I used to test out the World-Class Item. On the right is an extra from their elite forces who-" (Tanya)

"… Jaldabaoth…?" (Senri)

"-shit." (Tanya)

The prepared arrangement – for them to shut up and let Tanya defend them – fell apart with a leaked word from Senri, still on the ground.

Tanya grabbed her, tearing her off the floor even as Demiurge's order made her continue trying to press her own head into the ground. However, her own strength was insufficient to resist, easily lifting her to her own eye level.

"Option B it is, then. [Dominate]." (Tanya)

Her attempt at resistance immediately stopped, the new control spell overriding the first skill.

It was admittedly risky to make her speak the truth, but at least she wouldn't be able to speak out of turn with this.

"Where have you seen Jaldabaoth before?" (Tanya)

"I was ordered to observe Jaldabaoth's invasion of the Holy Kingdom as soon as we heard about it. By coincidence, I recorded his attack on Kalinsha, when he defeated their Holy Queen." (Senri)

"Interesting, there existed somebody who could observe us without our noticing. It was an oversight on my part to focus on them to the exclusion of threats residing in other countries. Was anybody else in the Theocracy made aware of the connection?" (Demiurge)

Tanya repeated the question in Demiurge's last sentence to get an answer out of her. Only then did she reply.

"The Cardinals and all members of the Black Scripture watched Jaldabaoth's fight to prepare for the possibility that we would have to defend the Theocracy against him. Once I confirmed his defeat at the hands of the Sorcerer King, our focus changed to him as the next threat." (Senri)

"Just that won't be enough to draw any conclusions. With their observer taken away from them, there would be no problem as long as nobody else sees you in action after this." (Tanya)

"Your requesting him to meet like this was a mistake, then?" (Albedo)

Tanya tried to finish the interpretation on a positive note, but Albedo quickly pointed out the obvious: Reporting to Demiurge was her responsibility, but bringing these two in as well was clearly introducing a liability.

"None of us were aware of how much they knew, nor are they the only ones who have seen that form of Jaldabaoth. I'll admit that it was unexpected, you can even call it a mistake if you wish, but the only consequence will be that these two can't be released with their memory intact… not that we would have done so anyway. If there aren't any more questions-" (Tanya)

"-Were those two involved in controlling Shalltear?" (Albedo)

Albedo stopped her again, bringing up yet another worrying question.

"… She's a non-combatant, specialized in gathering information-" (Tanya)

"Ask the question." (Albedo)

Her rushed attempt at a deferral was swept aside, leaving no recourse except to hope for a favorable answer.

"… Did you participate in the fight to subjugate the Vampire last year?" (Tanya)

"Yes, I did." (Senri)

Her hope was not answered.

"…" (Tanya)

"Ainz-sama has delivered his judgment to all responsible. They are to receive nothing except suffering and death." (Albedo)

"Wait, wait. Demiurge-sama, did Ainz-sama say anything after he returned?" (Tanya)

"He was disappointed to learn that encounter was mere coincidence. She was never their intended target, and so they were permitted the mercy of an early death." (Demiurge)

"-If Ainz-sama said that, it is possible his verdict has changed, killing them here would be exactly the needless killing he wishes to avoid. Albedo-sama, would you accept a stay of execution until Ainz-sama can offer an updated judgment?" (Tanya)

Albedo paused, considering Tanya's increasingly desperate attempt at a defense. She collapsed the bardiche she had drawn a few seconds earlier with a sigh, accepting the logic behind it.

"… Fine. Either way, her life belongs to Ainz-sama. We will present her, whether for clemency or execution by his hand." (Albedo)

"… Thank you very much, Albedo-sama. I will leave her handling to you." (Tanya)

Tanya released the domination, following it up immediately with a second spell to render the girl unconscious.

The result was still uncertain, relying on a judgment by Ainz, but those odds weren't terrible. Though she had been brought along as an extra who might be useful, she certainly seemed to possess more intelligence about the Theocracy, between the two of them.

Although the ministers and cardinals abducted by the Hanzos would certainly possess secret information of their own, getting it out of them wasn't necessarily practical. Since they were public figures, it might still be necessary to return them for negotiation, which having an extended chat with Neuronist might get in the way of. And, as Ainz and an unfortunate cleric had proven, excessive memory manipulation carried consequences of its own.

Both sides would find it easier to explain away the disappearances of the few remaining members of a secret society, than those of their own heads of state. There was no longer a conveniently located Demon Emperor to justify sudden personality shifts, so neither replacing them with doppelgangers nor brainwashing them through other means would be effective.

In fact, it was more likely than not that simply by being captured once, all those still free would assume them corrupted. Regardless of whether anything was actually done to them, they would never again be trusted with confidential information, just in case their minds had been poisoned to leak it all to the Sorcerous Kingdom at the earliest opportunity.

Assuming they followed the same trail of reasoning, the value of the captured cardinals for negotiations was likely close to nil. That being said, they might still be usable as puppets if enough of the government was captured and converted.

To an ordinary person, the cardinals were a sacred existence. Even to lower clergy, they were respected superiors who could be met with rarely, if ever. As far as they were aware, the puppets would be no less legitimate than the originals, and if a large majority could be controlled, the remainder could be destroyed by turning the Theocracy's own laws against them, leveraging the puppets' authority for anything from naming them traitors and heretics, to convicting and removing them outright.

There was no need for the Sorcerous Kingdom to annex or vassalize the Slane Theocracy outright. More likely than not, choosing to do so would only be counterproductive. The majority of the citizens would never accept it, and no small number would choose to die fighting over long-term occupation. In the worst case, the situation would devolve into either permanent martial law or nonstop rebellions. The resulting territories would cost more to maintain and garrison than any small benefit they might bring.

Even without conquering any cities, Nazarick would already be claiming almost everything it needed from the Theocracy: Their treasure, information, and most importantly, eliminating them as a threat once and for all.

Add a puppet government on top of all that, and the Theocracy would remain free in name only. Policy could slowly be changed to maintain control and prevent a future war, talent could be siphoned out of the country using the very same ledgers and census data the Theocracy maintained.

In the long term, changing their very gospel wasn't out of the question, secularizing the country outright, or otherwise rewriting their faith into something more advantageous to Nazarick. The possibilities were endless, what with the majority of Nazarick being unaging heteromorphic beings.

However, right now, Tanya still had her responsibilities until such a time that she could pass the remaining work over to Demiurge. The more cards she could put into his hands, the faster that day would come, and somebody with his intellect would certainly be able to make the most out of these two.

"And, who is that deviant drooling onto the floor while undressing me in her head?" (Demiurge)

A comment from that same Demiurge brought Tanya back out from her thoughts.

She glanced over at Zesshi, who, true to his description, had a disheveled expression plastered on her face, blatantly sneaking glances at the demon in the room, instantly making Tanya regret not binding her down with a proper order.

A quick, "Stay completely still" solved that, immobilizing her properly.

Watching her careful planning fall to bits in front of the two superiors she had no leeway against forced a brief sigh out of her.

"… As I mentioned, the Theocracy has been keeping her as a secret weapon for the past few centuries, the descendant of one of the players they called gods. The World-Class Item's control is… imprecise, and won't prevent a degree of independent activity, like holding a conversation during combat… or doing… that." (Tanya)

Tanya glanced at Demiurge and Albedo alternatively to see if they had any input to offer, but neither did. She continued.

"My control will expire after a day, though she herself doesn't mind defecting and giving up everything she learned, provided we're willing to accept two simple conditions-" (Tanya)

"… The prisoner is making demands?" (Albedo)

Albedo dropped in a resentful complaint, but didn't follow it up; Tanya again continued.

"- First, to kill her father, the king of the elves, after exhausting your imagination for torture on him." (Tanya)

Demiurge nodded slightly, then followed with an inquiry.

"The reason you believe we should accept mercenary work being…?" (Demiurge)

"You've read the reports about them, haven't you? A peaceful resolution against somebody with a personality like that is impossible. We would have to hunt him down regardless, so we may as well take the extra advantage. In addition, he's a relic from five centuries ago, exactly five hundred years, when he suddenly appeared and took over their kingdom. It's hard to think of it as a coincidence, and if they say he could single-handedly turn around a war against the Theocracy, I don't think it's unreasonable to guess that he's a former player as well." (Tanya)

"So we skip straight to bringing him in as a test subject for all the player-related experiments Ainz-sama has been putting off?" (Demiurge)

Tanya answered with a nod; the gist of her idea was communicated properly.

From the lack of further opposition, they would at least be willing to consider the condition.

"The second request was… how do I put it… for her to volunteer for Demiurge-sama's breeding experiments… with, you, Demiurge-sama, or another of a similar level." (Tanya)

"I see, examining both the biology of a player's descendant in this world, and those of us NPCs. Very well." (Demiurge)

"I would be exceedingly interested in observing that as well." (Albedo)

Much to Tanya's surprise, both immediately gave their support without the slightest reservation, even more readily than the first.

"To serve the Supreme Beings is to dedicate every fiber of your body and essence to them. Although, as you say, it is something which will require further experimentation, what with the difficulties of conception between species… the most suitable one would be Mare, I suppose?" (Demiurge)

Evidently, her doubt had been clearly visible to Demiurge. Still, he explained and even began formulating how he would get it done.

"-right, you do that. Then, there's the matter of the valuables seized from the Theocracy's hidden treasury. With your leave, I will return once to pass them over to Pandora's Actor-sama for analysis and cataloguing, before returning to finish the war." (Tanya)

"There is no need. Your task is already finished, so remain in Nazarick and assist Pandora's Actor as he deems necessary. Effective immediately, CZ Delta will order the army to return all forces to the Sorcerous Kingdom." (Demiurge)

Demiurge instantly rejected her proposal. The war was far from over as far as she was concerned, yet he unhesitatingly sent her away from the front lines – to yet another research job under a predictably mentally unstable, obsessive-type.

That, she could still get behind since it would inevitably give her the free time to work on her own new-found research projects, though the change was so sudden that she felt the need to confirm his intentions.

"If that is your order, I will obey, but is it alright to leave the Theocracy alone? Special forces excepted, the majority of their army is intact. On top of that, there are individuals of unknown power like the undead 'Rufus', who could become a threat. Given the chance, they will reorganize and counterattack, would they not?" (Tanya)

"Consider the state of the Theocracy for a moment. A sudden divine proclamation calling for a draft, in a matter of weeks, tens of thousands die, several armies disappear without a trace… and after a crushing defeat at their own capital, the invading army leaves without claiming a single prize, barely a sign of having fought a battle on them.

Now, how do the humans living in the Theocracy react to learning their families were sent to the slaughter on behalf of their gods, against invaders with no interest in conquest?

Doubt. Distrust. Disbelief. With the aid of brainwashed insurgents planted into the soldiers you captured, mistrust will turn to suspicion, suspicion to betrayal. Before long, they will abandon their faith by their own volition." (Demiurge)

Tanya watched him with amazement.

_Just when did he have time to do all that? It's been a week since we took the city, in that time he picked out the soldiers who originated from other cities, __manipulated their memories and emotions, so they could be sent back to become agitators without even knowing it?_

"… Truly an archdevil, it seems I still have much to learn." (Tanya)

She gave her honest praise. Certainly, Demiurge was no general, yet he could probably claim a perfect victory without fighting despite that.

He answered her with a rare honest smile.

"No, the mission was a success, though somewhat shallow, I will not argue against results. For one who was not blessed to have been created by the Supreme Beings, it was an impressive act to watch." (Demiurge)

It was unexpectedly satisfying to hear those few words out of him. Not only in the sense of having a superior's support to improve her chances at promotion, but simply to receive his approval.

Tanya returned a smile and a salute.

"Thank you very much. Then, I will be departing." (Tanya)

She turned on her heel and teleported back to Nazarick.

* * *

**Part 3**

He sat up against the backboard of his bed, early in the morning.

Although he wasn't the type to care about sleeping well and waking up regularly in the morning, at his level, he no longer had to sleep more than a few hours every night. Even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to fall asleep a second time.

There was nothing else for him to be doing, so he reached over to the nightstand, picking up one of the half-empty bottles of wine from last night, draining the remaining contents.

A fine elven wine, famous worldwide for its depth of flavor. This vintage, decades old but actually less than a year old, magically aged and fittingly rare. Not to him, of course, since he could take it straight from the source any time he wanted. Unfortunately, he had gotten bored of this taste a century ago, yet the useless incompetents running the vineyard had long since stopped innovating.

Perhaps it was time to get rid of them and swap them with some new faces – doing so would mean cutting the supply for at least a decade while they learned the requisite magic and techniques, so he gave up the thought. They weren't worth the effort, and besides, the replacements were unlikely to be any better.

He set this bottle back onto the nightstand, grabbing the other bottle next to it. He unstopped the bottle and took in the aroma, but waited before drinking. The taste of the last bottle was still left in his mouth, and following one with the other would just frustrate him by how poorly the two bottles went together.

The man sat alone in his bed, with no intention of doing anything this day. Two women had accompanied him last night, though they had gotten up an hour earlier and run off for healing the first chance they got.

Supposedly they were talented warriors, veterans whose strength had grown while defending the country, yet they remained incredibly frail. The difference between his own level and theirs meant they would inevitably get bruised during an ordinary intercourse, such was his strength.

With a little effort he could hold back enough to avoid injuring them, but he felt no need to do so. Their purpose was to pass on his genes, not to enjoy the process. And yet, so few of them succeeded, and the end product of his effort was nearly always garbage.

In fact, the last success had been nearly a century ago now, yet even that child had gone and gotten himself killed trying to hunt a dragon, and rejected resurrection on top of that. The fact that this kind of half-assed 'success' was one of the better results said everything about just how useless every single one of the mothers had been.

The one and only true success had been stolen away from him by the Slane Theocracy centuries before that. Worse, the deal which bought him out of the ancient great war meant he couldn't just crush them and reclaim her.

Thinking about the warning delivered by that armor drove him to fury.

He threw the bottle in his hand across the room, impacting and shattering into tiny fragments, leaving an indentation in the stone wall where it hit.

"That fucking dragon!"

He screamed in frustration and jumped out of bed. Somebody would come by to clean up the mess and rebuild the wall, sooner or later, this was far from the first time. Without stopping to put on some clothes, he opened the glass door leading outside, and stepped onto the balcony.

His gaze naturally rested on the city spreading out a few kilometers from his castle in every direction, built up from a simple village of elves into a kingdom in its own right over five centuries.

An eyesore.

Their golden age, lost, and all he got for it was this pathetic city. Time and time again he thought about razing it to the ground himself, but doing so would make it all truly worthless. He could at least finish by entertaining himself through watching it burn.

If he could at least have gotten a useful descendant out of them, they would have that little bit of value. Alas, they could not, and so they do not.

Maybe the humans could do better. He was on the verge of abandoning this country and trying that out after all, but doing so would require the resolve to once again make an enemy of that dragon, which he fought and failed to destroy once before.

"If it weren't for that fucking dragon!"

Today, he wasn't in a good mood. Today, he wouldn't be a merciful king. He wanted to throw something else, but his hand was still empty. Magic could serve as well, but that didn't seem right.

Instead he pulled another bottle of wine out of his inventory, brought it to his mouth and started drinking.

He was barely a fighter, he was an alchemist and a healer; worse, he was now an alchemist with a fatal shortage of ingredients, a healer without a party. Ambushing that dragon had failed even with two of his allies together with him, allies far superior to himself in combat skill. Destroying it by himself was no doubt hopeless.

Taking another drink, he thought back to the past.

In the beginning, they were allies. Eight supreme beings, dividing the entire world between them, trampling all who dared to stand in their path. Nothing in this new world could oppose them. Even after making the dragon lords and self-proclaimed gods their enemies, the wars were one-sided, consecutive victories for their side.

Conquering most of the continent only took two decades, but their rule lasted only slightly longer than that. Each of them had their own interpretation of the direction the world should advance, and the absence of an external threat to unite them, caused them to drift apart.

One betrayal, one murder, one retaliation. All trust built up as fellow guild members quickly dissolved, and not long after, any pretense of collaboration disappeared. By the time he learned about the existence of the mind-controlling World-Class Item, five of eight were already dead, beyond resurrection.

With the remaining dragon lords crawling out of hiding, victory was rapidly retreating from their grasp. During that period of chaos and insanity, he wished for nothing more than to leave it all behind.

And, in that moment of weakness, that dragon approached him with a deal: Withdraw from the fighting, recluse himself to a village of his own, and be spared from any further warfare.

He accepted without hesitation. It was only after the last two killed each other off that he realized the deception. Victory escaped him with two allies and a treasury full of YGGDRASIL items on his side, now the former had been killed off, and the dragon himself had seized the latter.

Centuries later, he had finally regained the levels lost to resurrections, tried to replace allies and NPCs with his own power-leveled children, all to break away and finally see that dragon dead.

Yet, playing 1:1 scale SimCity with the elves lost its appeal after only a couple decades. None of his children displayed the power of the 'god-kin'. His determination and drive for vengeance cooled into plain hatred.

He still had goals, but no further motivation to follow through with them. On a good day, he might still make progress, but by now the majority of days were like this. It was inevitable, he reasoned; four and a half centuries under house arrest would do this to anybody, he reasoned.

He took another drink from the bottle, leaving it empty.

A knock from the door broke him out from his depressing reminiscence. Instantly, it became the target of his displaced anger as the bottle sailed through the air at incredible speed. Whether because the alcohol was getting to him or his aim was just bad today, the bottle narrowly missed, breaking the wall slightly to the right of the door.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty."

"Not today!"

He yelled at the female elf messenger who stepped into the room, in spite of his threat.

"My apologies, Your Majesty, I bring a pressing report. The Theocracy has abandoned their forward camp inside our territory, retreating from our borders."

This wasn't the first time he had received reports about the Theocracy's attacks, despite the number of messengers thrown off the balcony to make it clear he wasn't interested in whatever happened to this country anymore.

At least this one brought good news for once, instead of trying to beg for his power. She may be worthless in terms of power, but at least she wasn't as stupid as the others. In that moment, he decided to keep her alive. Still-

"I don't care. Get lost."

If she continued to pester him, he could be convinced to change his mind and throw her off the balcony. For her sake, she had best withdraw – but she hesitated.

Had she brought news of something happening to the child the Theocracy had stolen, he might have cared, but this was nothing of note.

Decades ago, they would have continued pestering him with more news, but no longer. She bowed and started to leave.

"-Wait."

He thought about the implications of the Theocracy suddenly retreating, abandoning all their gains in the last decade. Whether this country lived or died mattered little to him, but this choice of theirs was strange enough to draw his interest for once.

"Is there any news about the Theocracy itself? Is some monster destroying them?"

She was surprised to hear him actually respond, but almost immediately regained her composure.

"We don't have the agents to confirm this, but we heard rumors of a powerful undead appearing to the north, and the Theocracy gathering an army to subjugate it."

He cast a [Cure Poison] to purge the remaining effects of the alcohol he drank, then pulled a decorated robe out of his inventory, pulling it over his nude body.

"Then get somebody out there, you idiots!"

It hadn't been approximately five hundred years, exactly five hundred years had passed. This was a hereto unknown force, with enough power to seriously threaten the Theocracy. An inexperienced group of new players, anxious and looking for news about their old world.

First impressions would be critical. If he got to them first, even pitting them against the dragon lords wouldn't be impossible.

This was no time to be drunk and depressed. Centuries of patience would finally be rewarded with the appearance of malleable players.

"Figure out what's going on. Go!"

The messenger bowed and rushed out from the room, carefully closing the door behind her as she departed.

As he watched her depart with an look of satisfaction, he carefully straightened the robes he wore, combing through his hair to clean it up, to make it less of a mess, if only slightly.

For the first time in weeks, the majesty befitting the king of the elves would be returned to his appearance.

* * *

**Part 4**

A single look into the treasury of Nazarick immediately convinced Tanya that whatever treasure she had collected and brought in was relatively worthless. Let alone the inner treasury and whatever dangerous terrors were kept beyond that portal, the disorganized mountains of gold coins and items in the entrance hall were already enough to drown out those few backpacks' worth of added inventory.

The difference between the two was staggering. Was it because the guild it originally belonged to was smaller than Nazarick, and thus had less treasure? Did they exhaust the rest of their consumables and YGGDRASIL gold during the war which destroyed them? Perhaps the guild was not around for as long, and had less time to accumulate treasures. Any or all of the three were likely true to varying degrees.

By far the most common among the items were ordinary equipment: weapons, armor, and the like. Though a few – particularly from the equipment gathered from the Black Scripture – were unique items constructed using the creator tools, the majority of these were common items, which Pandora's Actor was quickly able to categorize and list.

Naturally, the list meant nothing at all to Tanya, it was nothing but a collection of meaningless names. Pandora's Actor himself recognized a few as having duplicates among the older items in the treasury.

It wasn't until the list was shown to Ainz himself that he instantly recognized the pattern common to them: Every single one of the items and artifacts had been available with the first major version of YGGDRASIL, prior to the very first expansion – three years after the game's initial release.

Unfortunately, this meant their items had been created with the first generation of creator tools. Long before they were optimized into the idealized, easy-to-use tools they had become at the end of YGGDRASIL, at release they were a clunky set of programs, hard to use to the point where players were put off from customizing their equipment.

Most of the items they had seized were simply combinations of a visual skin and an item status sheet; They were nowhere near as personalized as the equipment created by the 41 players in Ainz Ooal Gown. Although this made their equipment far easier to pass onto another user, it was more general-purpose and nowhere near as effective at any specific function.

Of course, this didn't apply to every single item. In particular, the individual regalia of the players calling themselves gods – as identified by Zesshi – were far superior to the common items gathering dust in their treasury.

Only three of these were recovered, however, two being her equipment, and one to the late captain of the Black Scripture. A fourth had been taken by the still-active members of the Theocracy's leadership and was in the process of discreetly being recovered by Demiurge. The remainder were all missing, assumed lost to the Eight Greed Kings upon death.

In summary, the amount of work required to analyze every item was a mere fraction of initial expectations. A month's schedule was mostly finished by the end of the first week, with the remainder turning into a de-facto paid vacation.

Tanya's decision not to report their excessively generous schedule helped to earn that as well.

One month passed before the deception was discovered.

* * *

_"- -_ -_-_- _- _-_ -_, -_ _-_ _-?"_

_"__Reception is poor, l__ast message did not transmit. Please repeat.__"_ (Tanya)

The message came in as nothing but noise.

No reply came.

She forcibly added more magic into the [Message] to amplify the signal strength and tried again. It may not exactly be radio, but it was probably close enough to apply the same principles. For the same reason, she expanded her perception into the air below her trying to catch an incoming transmission.

_"__Are __you receiv__ing__? __Reception is poor, last message did not transmit. Please repeat."_ (Tanya)

_"__I -d, __I- lo-_ -_-ct _- _he -e, w-e _-_ _-u?__"_

She could recognize the message incoming, but dispersed shortly before reaching. Her indirect reception only The waves were definitely incoming, but still garbled. Dropping her altitude slightly to right where they vanished would resolve that.

_"__Message received, but still garbled. Once more, please repeat.__"_ (Tanya)

_"__My connection with the Eyeball Corpse disappeared for a minute just now.__"_

Ainz's voice finally came through the last [Message] clearly.

_"__Sorry about that, __I went out of range, it should be better now.__"_ (Tanya)

_"__Yeah, it's back and clear. I didn't think [Undeath Slave Sight] had a range limit, where are you? All __we can __see is sky.__"_ (Ainz)

_"__Space.__"_ (Tanya)

_"… __Huh? __I think I misheard, what was that?__"_ (Ainz)

_"__You didn't. I'm maintaining position exactly one hundred kilometers above the target."_ (Tanya)

_"…"_ (Ainz)

Radio silence once again.

_"__Hello? Are the messages still dropping?__"_ (Tanya)

_"… __No, I can hear you, but… __how__? Or, __why__?__"_ (Ainz)

_"I'm still experimenting, but __most __tier magic falls apart __around__ this point, I'm certain he won't be able to detect me here no matter what I do."_ (Tanya)

_"__A f__lag…?"_ (Ainz)

_"__Flag? What do you mean?__"_ (Tanya)

_"__No, nevermind. You see the city, right? Can you point the eyeball at it for us?__"_ (Ainz)

_"__Acknowledged.__"_ (Tanya)

Tanya carefully untied the two-meter ball of mixed meat and eyeballs attached to her back, wrapping her arms around it in an embrace to avoid dropping it. The undead creature could float, but only a couple meters above the ground, not this far into the upper atmosphere. Were her grip to slip, it would plummet most of the way back to the surface before its flight returned. She carefully turned it until it was aimed directly towards the ground.

Two thousand kilometers to the north, inside a finely furnished command center within Nazarick, a satellite image with a high-level undead camera, [Undeath Slave Sight] transmitter, and [Crystal Monitor] display was being projected in front of Ainz, Albedo, and the Floor Guardians, Demiurge and Cocytus.

"Seems there's no problem with the image." (Ainz)

"It's from an undead created by Ainz-sama himself for this purpose, success is obvious." (Albedo)

Albedo proudly praised Ainz for his idle comment. The way he saw it, all he had done was use an ordinary skill, so he wasn't sure how else to respond.

Both Demiurge and Albedo were observing the tiny buildings with great interest. In all honesty, Ainz could only barely figure out which of the towers was supposed to be the focus.

Bringing his finger bones up to his chin, he held the pose for a few seconds. He gave a sagely nod.

"I see, so that's how it was. What do you two think?" (Ainz)

"Although his agents continue to be intercepted before they can pass through the Theocracy and into our territory, he continues to patiently wait in his stronghold. The worst possible outcome." (Demiurge)

"Precisely. Not only would it be exceptionally dangerous to assault his fortress through all his preparations, but having placed it in the middle of the capital city ensures any ambush we attempt would be witnessed by any number of his citizens." (Albedo)

Demiurge and Albedo respectively gave their candid thoughts.

Certainly, the fortress that is Nazarick could destroy nearly any number of ordinary invaders. Even without the rest of the guild members present to defend it, several dozen ordinary level 100 players choosing to invading would just be volunteering for suicide. There was no end to the traps hidden throughout its ten floors which could instantly kill a level 100 player caught unaware.

The tower they saw was certainly nowhere near as developed as the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, which had slowly been built up over the years with the aid of thousands of cash items to expand its data capacity.

Still, this was a player with hundreds of years to prepare for any possible attack. With sufficient preparation, a magic caster could slay even gods. Relying on the brute force that was Nazarick's Floor Guardians to raid his stronghold would be beyond stupid.

As long as he continued to wait for them inside his tower, attempting to capture him carried a significant risk of taking casualties. The costs and benefits were instantly inverted.

Then there was the placement of his tower: The very center of the capital city of the Elf Kingdom, deep within the Great Forest of Evasha. While the location itself wasn't an issue for staging an invasion – as demonstrated by Tanya's presence far above the city – the elven population would be.

A single witness placing them at the scene would be a diplomatic demerit in the coming years. For similar reasons, using [Sword of Damocles] wasn't a viable option, neither was Albedo's World-Class Item, [Ginnungagap]: The former would be tantamount to signing the smoldering ruins with Nazarick's emblem, while the latter was an area-of-effect centered around the wielder, so using it against the tower from point-blank range without first being detected would be nigh impossible.

The next best solution would be a straight-up massacre, to eliminate all witnesses by outright eliminating all possible witnesses. Were the entire city to be systematically erased from the map, many might still suspect the Sorcerous Kingdom being responsible for the attack, but actually proving it should not be possible.

Of course, resorting to such extreme measures would result in correspondingly severe repercussions should they fail to erase all evidence. In the unlikely event that some hereto unknown party possessed magic at the level of [True Resurrection], leaving every single body as nothing but scattered ash might not even be enough.

It was a last resort among last resorts, but if it came down to that or risking the lives of one of the Guardians, Ainz, Albedo, and Demiurge would unanimously choose to do so without hesitation.

"… The Player himself probably doesn't have any World-Class Items of his own, otherwise he would have long since used them… whatever defenses he prepared should be focused around the tower itself… if we could destroy the tower and follow up with a sneak attack…" (Ainz)

_"__You just need it destroyed?__"_ (Tanya)

While Ainz muttered a summary, Tanya sent him another message. While they were watching her location through the Eyeball Corpse, she was listening in on the meeting in the same way, having created a magic ear and left it behind in the command post.

Although, of those present, only Ainz was connected to her with a [Message].

_"__Neither Super-Tier Magic nor World-Class Items can be used, you'd be recognized immediately. Can you really do it?__"_ (Ainz)

_"__If you don't mind some collateral damage, sure. I __happen to __have a prototype to test out.__"_ (Tanya)

She seemed supremely confident, even in the face of those additional restrictions.

Admittedly, the destructive power she had demonstrated once in the past was impressive, but not to the level of a Super-tier spell. This time, the target was completely unknown. Even her casting [Sword of Damocles] had been insufficient to completely level the Theocracy's guild base, even without including the numerous underground floors described by the Hanzos. Like a bunker, they were left virtually unharmed by the strike.

Despite this, she asserted her success with certainty, more concerned with collateral damage than the target itself.

Considering her career experience in premeditated destruction, this was no idle claim. If she said she could destroy the tower, it would end up destroyed.

"Hm. Then, were that tower and its surroundings to disappear… how would you defeat an otherwise unknown opponent, Cocytus?" (Ainz)

"… With. All. Due. Respect, Ainz-sama, I. Believe. That. Question. Is. Inappropriate." (Cocytus)

"-Hoh?" (Ainz)

The flames in Ainz's empty eye sockets flared up briefly.

Had he made a mistake? The question he was posing didn't seem unreasonable given the situation, as far as hypotheticals went. Although making assumptions about an opponent they had never seen fight was difficult, Demiurge and Neuronist had done an excellent job of capturing agents and extracting information from them, respectively, and that information should have been circulated to the Guardians.

A talented warrior like Cocytus could make reasonable predictions about the flow of a battle with only a cursory understanding of the combatants.

Glancing briefly at Albedo, the fact that she maintained an unbroken proud face reassured him that at very least, he hadn't said anything so stupid as to drive her into despair.

Adopting the tone of an instructor leading his student to finish answering a question, he looked back to Cocytus and spoke again.

"Is that what you believe, Cocytus?" (Ainz)

"Yes. Since. Our. Objective. Is. Capture, Our. Methods. Become. Restricted.

Rather. Than. Defeating. Him, We. Must. Build. A. Team. To. Abduct. Him. And. Retreat. Immediately." (Cocytus)

Ainz nodded.

"An astute observation. Then, how would you go about doing so? What support would you require?" (Ainz)

Before responding, Cocytus paused to think about how to phrase his answer before responding.

"Begin. With. A. Surprise. Attack. From. Tanya, Use. The. Confusion. For. Shalltear. And. Aura. To. Pull. Him. Through. A. [Gate], Into. An. Ambush.

The. Critical. Stage. Would. Be. The. Abduction." (Cocytus)

"You would not recommend yourself for the mission?" (Ainz)

"Others. Are. Better. Suited. To. Stealth. Than. Me." (Cocytus)

"Certainly, knowing your own weaknesses is always important, no matter how strong you may be." (Ainz)

The strategy Cocytus was suggesting involved carefully dividing up roles to those well-suited to them, with each stage of the plan clearly working towards the overall goal. There was neither the arrogance of assuming his own strength to be sufficient, nor the belief that bringing greater numbers to every encounter, instead favoring a smaller team to accomplish a single, specific objective.

Whether he had determined from Ainz's own wording that Tanya was in position to launch a first strike, or independently reached the same conclusion on how to make use of her, Ainz could not tell. Regardless, he was properly thinking about all the pieces available to him, rather than getting caught up on the idea that only the Guardians could be used to fight.

Considering that this was the work of somebody who had zero experience with tactics only a year earlier, it was a remarkably solid proposal. Ainz had no doubt that the usual strategists – Demiurge and Albedo – could come up with something even more detailed, but the careful simplicity of Cocytus's approach appealed to him. Was this what it was like for a parent to feel proud while watching over the growth of his 'nephew'?

What Ainz should do now was to support him for his progress.

"In that case, we will be following Cocytus's proposed plan of attack." (Ainz)

_"__Seriously, we're doing this now? I'll say it again, it's an untested prototype, don't blame me if it takes out half the city.__"_ (Tanya)

Knowing that somebody was paying attention and willing to criticize him was actually reassuring. Still, if according to her judgment, that warning was the only critique she had to give, it shouldn't be that bad of an idea. He smiled – or tried to, at least, not that it was at all visible on his face.

_"__What do you think, can they succeed?__"_ (Ainz)

_"… __He's also a player, so his level is limited, right? Two-on-one, with the element of surprise, I've had to deal with worse. If you're still __worried__, why not give them a World-Class Item or two?__"_ (Tanya)

Ainz thought about her comment. True, players would be limited to level 100 according to the rules of YGGDRASIL, but the assumption that all such players would be equivalent was far from accurate.

The difference between two players with different class compositions could be staggering, particularly when it came to hidden classes like his own 'Eclipse', and even more so for classes like Touch Me's 'World Champion'. Depending on the circumstances, he might well have been able to fight two players at the same time, and come out on top, so adequate caution was necessary. Still, somebody with that much power was unlikely to sit idle for hundreds of years.

What worried him far more was the idea that in all those years, he would had found a way to strengthen himself further through some technique unique to this world. Talents, for instance, could theoretically be stolen with a wish, providing endless opportunities for improvement. Special magic items like Gazef Stronoff's sword existed, so he couldn't discount the possibility of the same techniques being used to create a powerful item with much more data. No doubt there were countless others which they hadn't yet stumbled upon.

Tanya's lack of knowledge about YGGDRASIL was inevitable. Rather, anything more than common sense game knowledge could only be taught directly by Ainz himself, and there weren't too many times when both of them were available at the same time. She hadn't expressed much interest in learning about the game either, so the topic didn't come up between them.

On the other hand, bringing a World-Class Item was a viable option. It was important to carefully balance bringing one along and incur the risk of losing it, against the advantages from possessing one, which would mitigate some risk to the Guardians being sent. To him, which was more valuable?

"Have Aura and Shalltear equipped with World-Class Items as well, just in case. Of course, if they believe the capture would no longer be possible, switch to assassination to eliminate the witness." (Ainz)

"We are awed by your generosity, Ainz-sama. If you would permit a question, is it truly safe to rush in without more preparation?" (Albedo)

Albedo voiced her concern while bowing.

"A reasonable concern. However, the risk is calculated, and lessened by the presence of each of you. While I wish to examine Cocytus's growth, you are permitted to support him if you believe our safety to be at risk." (Ainz)

"I. Would. Be. Honored. To. Learn. From. Your. Insights." (Cocytus)

Cocytus lowered his head towards Albedo and Demiurge.

"There is no need for such formality between colleagues. Our workload has been growing uncontrollably as of late, to spread the work out is a consideration for us, a boon out of Ainz-sama's generosity." (Albedo)

"Indeed. Shall we begin by contacting Aura and Shalltear? Their work for today should be wrapping up within the hour, thus we should be ready to attack by dusk." (Demiurge)

_"…__ Call me back when we're ready to start, I'm heading back to finish the preparations. Degurechaff out.__"_ (Tanya)

The image reflected on the monitor reflected her action as well, blinking out once before revealing the inside of the shed that was the fake Nazarick a second later.

Ainz cut the connection from his end as well, instead watching Cocytus discuss plans with the other two.

* * *

Tanya continued to hover in the air, completely still. Curiously, there was no need for her to adjust for the rotation of the planet to maintain her position, even without doing so, she remained exactly where she started, dead-center above the central tower of the elven capital, altitude 100,001 meters above sea level.

At the moment, she was not carrying the massive clump of eyeballs from before, as it would only obstruct her movement. Although there would be no need for high-speed evasion today, the fact that carrying it around would get in her way didn't change, so she left it behind – in a distant cabin to be exact, carefully camouflaged deep within the forest, far from either human or elven civilization.

As the sun slowly began to set, she counted the remaining seconds until the mission was to begin. From this altitude, she could still clearly see the sun, but in just a few more seconds, the last rays of sunlight would vanish below the horizon, as viewed from the surface.

With perfect punctuality, Tanya prepared to attack, carefully withdrawing a crystal from her inventory into her hand.

This was a Spell-Sealing Crystal, certainly, yet its color was neither the dull, dark unfilled crystal nor the transparent, blue, glass-like texture of a crystal which had been charged with a spell.

The crystal in her hand was a brilliant white, perfectly opaque and giving off an intense, colorless light. Though she had called herself undetectable in her current position, were somebody in the city below to look straight up, they would see one extra point amidst the beautiful field of stars filling the sky above.

This was the lynchpin she had spent the majority of the last month researching, carefully testing the potential and pushing the limits of these items.

Its color came from the unreasonable amount of mana crammed into it: One full week's worth of her mana regeneration, equivalent to several hundred castings of an ordinary 10th tier spell. At this very moment, it was truly filled to capacity, on the verge of overloading in a catastrophic manner.

How had she filled one of these crystals – which would only accept a single spell – with such an unreasonable amount of magic power? The trick was deviously simple: She had merely continued charging it with raw magic as if constructing a formula inside it, but without actually forming it into anything of note.

The crystal would continue to absorb magic until it accepted a spell, but she provided no such spell, only magic. Thus, it would only continue accepting magic without limit, until it approached the storage limit of the magical material itself.

Simply put, there was a bug with the Spell-Sealing Crystal's conditions for recognizing what 'one spell' was. During the game, the ability to manipulate mana directly likely never existed, but this error remained after forcibly carrying over such an unrealistic item into reality.

She had stumbled across an irregularity in tier magic long ago, back when she was only just starting to learn the multitude of spells which made up that system. Using 10th tier [Reality Slash] half a dozen times would leave her tired, but even just a single casting of the 5th tier [Raise Dead] left her nearly unconscious.

Extrapolating from there, the cost of certain higher-tier spells such as [True Resurrection] would be astronomical. Unlike when Ainz or the Guardians used tier magic, the cost of spells of the same tier was not normalized to a convenient formula.

He could use any selection of 10th tier spells, and the cost of each of them would be comparable, no matter the spell.

She could use an attack spell of the same tier ten times, but her capacity was likely not even a tenth of what resurrection magic required.

Yet, a Spell-Sealing Crystal would accept either without care, accepting a spell of any size, no matter their relative mana consumption. Though the listed capacity was certainly 'one spell', its true capacity, when counted in units of raw magic, was unparalleled by any material she had seen in the past.

If she could only figure out how to draw the mana back out and use the crystal as a battery, her potential would be limitless.

Unfortunately, as of yet, there was only one way to release the sealed magic – explosively.

When breaking a Spell-Sealing Crystal, the energy would dissipate into the surrounding atmosphere. With any ordinary spell, this would be nothing more than a puff of smoke.

Multiply the magic by a thousand times, however, and the mana density would exceed the limit for what should be physically possible, turning into incredibly volatile materialized mana, which would deteriorate milliseconds later, scattering over a wide area, resulting in a wide-scale unconfined magic explosion.

Incapacitating or killing an entire battalion of aerial mages with a single attack would no longer be an idle fantasy.

Alas, Tanya was too much of a perfectionist to be satisfied with just this much.

This was a powerful effect, but not something she couldn't achieve on her own, as she was now. Though the crystal held several times the magic energy she could output, there was a clear difference in efficiency between letting mana combust naturally, and using a formula to direct that abundance of mana into something incomparably more potent.

With an exceptional degree of care and precision, she began to draw a shell of interlocking formulas around the crystal. The task was an entirely different challenge to imitating Super-tier magic. Although nowhere near as complicated, the fact that she was holding a semi-stable singularity of magic in her hand amplified the risk exponentially.

While there should theoretically be no way for the sealed mana to react with her formula, Murphy was often a cruel teacher. She had held back and left the crystal at around 90% capacity, but that was a rough estimate, based on careful measurement and calculation. The margin of error on that statistic was far beyond her preference for a weapon's safety tolerance, only barely better than the original Type-95.

The formulas she assembled were numerous: A standalone shell to prevent reactions with the air, as well as prevent energy leaks which could be detected; An impact trigger to shatter the crystal, with a delayed safety to ensure it couldn't activate until long after she let go; A secondary internal shell, for containing the unstable energy once the crystal shattered just long enough to work on it.

Between the two shells, another ring of formulas, this one serving as the core for the actual weapon. Though it would activate for merely a single millisecond, this complex set of calculations given form was the basis for amplifying the effectiveness of the materialized mana tenfold – through a process which admittedly was not her own invention.

Long ago, observations of the many, many catastrophic failures of Elenium Type-95 prototypes over a number of months led a certain mad scientist to start down a new path of experimentation. Why was it that an equivalent computation orb would sometimes explode like a hand grenade, other times self-destruct like a bomb, and yet other times clear an entire field of all life?

It was because he spent time researching this theory that the failures Tanya herself had to suffer through were relatively mild – 'relatively' being the operative word, about as mild as grasping an exploding hand grenade.

Unfortunately, that was the only practical benefit which could be extracted from the short-lived project. The most destructive of all the Type-95 failures, caused by the complete fusion of its four cores during the collapse process, was simply too unpredictable to reliably reproduce.

After one too many accidents during experimentation, the project was scrapped in favor of focusing on the actual Type-95, which was relatively a far more stable design. Again, 'relatively' being the operative word.

The upside of all this was that those sacrifices taught that mad scientist about the importance of separating the cores to prevent fusion even in the event of a catastrophic failure.

By the time Tanya was assigned to work under him, that project was nothing more than a stack of documents in the back of a filing cabinet, tagged 3-95G.

She didn't have a chance to read those documents until long after her term of service as his guinea pig had expired, finding them by accident during her last months in that world. A quick reading of those records was enough to once again convince her that the line between genius and madness was not only thin, but in his case, had long since dissolved.

Project 3-95G was predicated on the existence of mana fixation, written long before the phenomenon was ever confirmed. Nonetheless, his calculations and predictions had been perfect, as she was now discovering.

Tanya spent the better part of ten minutes and three-quarters of her own mana pool constructing the formula to the utmost quality, so as to make sure it would accomplish its function perfectly. Instantly, an incredible fatigue washed over her as mana exhaustion from the formula caught up to her.

Taking a deep breath, she dropped the crystal. There was no need to launch it, doing so would only increase the risk of complications from the sudden acceleration. Even without doing so, the crystal would continue to accelerate, straight down, without the slightest deviation from its path.

For reasons unknown, air resistance simply didn't apply to flying objects, as if the entire world was running on a shoddy physics engine. It continued to accelerate without limit, quickly falling out of range of her ability to detect it.

Just like this, the falling crystal would continue to accelerate, faster and faster, until it was falling at well over a kilometer per second by the time it struck the ground. The speed alone would make it impossible to fully evade.

_"__Package is loose, T__-minus __two minutes until impact. Withdrawing to observing distance.__"_

Tanya teleported once back to the cabin, grabbed the giant eyeball, and immediately activated teleportation a second time, placing herself at the same altitude as before, but at a distance of a couple hundred kilometers away.

At this distance, she could see the entire city, and would be safe no matter how much she might have miscalculated the energy involved in her payload.

Hoisting the massive eyeball of a camera over her shoulder, Tanya and Ainz observed the first ever working prototype 3-95G: Mana Core-Fusion Explosive Device.

* * *

The man had chosen not to go to bed early today, instead spending the late hours in his vault, examining the treasures and ingredients remaining to him – that was the only reason he was currently alive, of that he was certain.

Though his instincts had been dulled from centuries of inactivity, the sudden alarm in his mind made him reflexively rush to cast the greatest defensive spell he was capable of using.

It was the very same moment that he finished and encased himself in a vault of magic that it was shattered with a single attack, along with half his health, and everything else.

This was no exaggeration: When he opened his eyes, the ground around him, the treasure vault he had just been in, the tower above, and even the very air surrounding him, all had vanished without a trace. As he looked up from the immense crater he was now buried in the middle of, all the lights of his city, as far as he could see – gone.

When he looked down, magic burns were covering half his body, the artifact robe he had been wearing, torn to shreds, perhaps even beyond repair. So severe were the burns that he couldn't even feel pain from them – arguably a small mercy, else he might have lost consciousness in that same instant. He screamed, but even that didn't reach his own ears, which had burst before he even noticed.

Before doing anything else, he pulled an Elixir, a healing potion of the highest grade. He had only a couple remaining after all these years, but still he drank the crimson liquid without hesitation. As he did so, a golden light covered his wound-riddled body, returning him to a pristine state only seconds later.

Now recovered and regaining his calm, he looked around at the ruins of what was once his city. No, the term was not appropriate; Within this kilometer-radius crater he was standing in, not even rubble remained of the buildings.

He didn't need to be told the cause of this destruction. It was blindingly obvious to any elf, not just the ones who had lived long enough to have witnessed it personally in the past.

There was only one being in this world who could perform an attack of this magnitude.

"Tsaindoruks Vaision!"

He screamed the name of his foe, the damnable dragon who had killed him with the very same ultimate attack centuries earlier.

"We had a deal!"

Scanning the night sky, he continued to search for the despicable enemy who would deceive him, betray him, and attempt to destroy him with a surprise attack.

Thus was his tunnel vision, so occupied with the threat he sought that he missed the threat that was.

Even as he continued to search, a thick chain tore through his chest, and as if possessing a mind of its own, quickly wrapped around his body. He glanced at the fountain of blood spraying out of his own body, then swung around to the attackers – a dark elf holding the chain, and some crimson armor charging him with a lance.

He dove out of the way of the attack, or at least, he tried to, but failed. Even though his equipment should have guaranteed immunity against binds of any sort, he was without a doubt rooted to the floor by the dark elf.

This information flowed through his head, just as the lance pierced his chest, just below where the chain had entered, its mechanisms opening up shortly after entering his body.

At this, he again screamed. Unlike earlier, he was entirely aware of this pain, the indescribable pain of having his very life drained out of him, the burning, excruciating pain, as if every drop of blood passing through his veins had suddenly turned to salt.

He was neither an undead who could fight without feeling pain, nor a legendary hero who could continue to fight without batting an eyelid when his arm was severed. He was merely a king, only a man who had sat idle for far too long, leaving his mind unable to keep up with his powerful body's abilities.

The chain pulled him forward as the dark elf ran backwards, towards a waiting [Gate]. He tried to resist, of course, and was able to for a time, but any magic he tried was broken when the increasing pain ruined his concentration, until the dark elf passed through the portal.

Somehow, the chain passed through unbroken, still connected to him on one side, and on the other… the force with which he was being pulled suddenly tripled, almost pulling him off his feat.

If there was still an upside, it was that the crimson armor had retracted its lance, perhaps no longer seeing a point to keeping him stabbed, but that didn't change his inability to resist the chain slowly retracting, drawing him into the portal where only doom awaited.

He was able to cast a strength buff on himself, but it was no use. With every jerk of the chain, he drew ever closer to the gate, until, with one final pull, he was drawn through it.

Unceremoniously, he fell down, losing his balance in the process, landing on the soft soil opposite the portal, which immediately sealed shut behind him.

On the other side, a single butler was waiting, his muscular frame drawing the massive chain together with the dark elf, obviously the cause for the sudden increase in strength. With one smooth motion, the chain was driven into the ground, binding him into place with only a couple meters of slack.

There might have been more enemies in the shadows of the forest, but he was in no state to look for them now, nor would knowing help in any way, given how he was still bound to the ground, unable to walk more than a few paces, even if he could stand up.

Still on the ground, he could only look up at the much larger butler even as he radiated an icy aura of absolute supremacy. In the distant past, this much intimidation would have been nothing to him or his companions, but now, he was alone and weak, a shadow of his former self.

"Now then, oh king of elves, I have heard just a bit about your past transgressions. Do not worry, though you will feel all which you have caused, I will not allow you to die. That is my promise."

The butler's eyes did not carry a shred of mercy or compassion.

* * *

Demiurge pressed a finger to his ear, exchanging a [Message] with one of his Evil Lords. Though it had been placed as a precautionary measure to lock down teleportation in the event something went wrong with using the [Divine-Binding Chain] to lock their target into position, if for instance, a third party had invaded to steal him back.

"Stage three, completed without issue. According to Aura, he was only able to put up a token resistance before getting subdued by Sebas." (Demiurge)

"… Everything has gone according to plan. I had expected… hoped, even, that a player would be more… I suppose we should not expect every fight to become a climax." (Ainz)

Ainz let the sentence trail off without finishing. Just what had he expected? More resistance against the attacks of his Guardians instead of an overwhelming victory? Or perhaps some mental resistance on his own part, having ordered the capture of a fellow countryman? Neither explanation seemed right.

"Ainz-sama, if I may…" (Albedo)

"What is it, Albedo?" (Ainz)

"From the perspective of lower lifeforms like humans – or elves, the loss of companions may leave mental scarring even after many years. Unlike a Supreme Being such as Ainz-sama who could easily run the entirety of Nazarick without our assistance, that man could not continue functioning after the guild members accompanying him were slain." (Albedo)

"I see… certainly, that does make sense. I am impressed by your flexibility of thought, to reach that conclusion through your understanding the intricacies of the human mind." (Ainz)

"-I am unworthy of your praise, Ainz-sama." (Albedo)

"No, Albedo, your efforts at administration have been what has sustained Nazarick. There is no limit to the praise you deserve." (Ainz)

As always, her evaluation of his potential was far too high. Even though it was she who ran the daily affairs of the entire country, analyzing and organizing mountains of paperwork into something even he could mostly understand.

Rather than him sustaining Nazarick on his lonesome without the Guardians, it was they who could continue on without him. And yet, those few words from the unnecessary him were enough to bring a tear to Albedo's eye.

He leaned back into the makeshift throne which had been set up in this room for him, looking at the floating mirror which no longer displayed an image.

As he did so, Cocytus matched his gaze, recalling the scene which it had just shown them. Taking in a deep breath of cold air, he spoke with an audible dejection in his otherwise jagged voice.

"Ainz-sama. I. Sincerely. Apologize. For. My. Suggestion.

Her. Attack. May. Cause. Diplomatic. Problems. In. The. Future.

Please. Allow. Me. To. Take. Full. Responsibility." (Cocytus)

Despite a resounding success in the mission he had directed, Cocytus instead apologized. Ainz immediately spoke up to stop him.

"It's fine. Tanya's attack was a direct order from myself." (Ainz)

Seeing the confusion on all three, expressed either on their faces or by a surprised exhale of frigid breath, he began to think up a justification.

Though he had honestly been just as shocked as them to watch the broadcast from the Eyeball Corpse, that attack which had left even Albedo with a pale face was indeed something he had authorized. He had no intention of making either her or Cocytus take the fall for that.

"… That level of destruction is far from the worst history has known. Let's see… Just as you once did with the Lizardmen, and Albedo has just shown… consider the viewpoint of the elves." (Ainz)

By this point he was just weaving together complete bullshit. Although, from the fact that their complicated expressions had not changed even now, this might have been too much for even them to make a leap in logic into a reasonable conclusion.

Ainz tried to salvage the situation by breaking into a chuckle, interrupting the three who were desperately spinning gears in their heads trying to understand his own nonsense.

"… Do not concern yourselves over it, this was merely an unlikely gamble which may not show results beyond the obvious. If it pays off… I'm sure you'll understand in time. If not, what we will learn from my failure is benefit enough." (AInz)

He laughed again. Though Demiurge and Albedo were obviously disappointed to hear this from him, it was self-directed, and should fade with time.

If they were able to make something out of it, good. If not, he would shrug it off as a miscalculation. Regardless, they had already gotten what they needed from this operation.

The only remaining question was when and how the Sorcerous Kingdom would come back to take over the remainder, this time in an official sense.

"Demiurge, I entrust you with the remainder." (Ainz)

"Of course. May I request your assistance once we reach the experiments requiring memory manipulation?" (Demiurge)

"Certainly, Demiurge. I eagerly await your reports. Then, until next time." (Ainz)

Ainz ended the conversation there, gracefully standing up from his seat before using the teleportation effect of the [Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown] to return to his own private bedroom.

Despite not taking part in any combat, the mental tension he felt was very real. Confirming that the door into the room was indeed closed, he dropped into bed with a deep sigh.

* * *

Not long after their master left, Albedo directed a slight smile to Cocytus.

"Well then, Cocytus, I'm sure Sebas is finishing up by now." (Albedo)

"Yes. I. Will. Contact. Shalltear. For. Teleportation." (Cocytus)

As he said so, he bowed to the two of them to bid farewell, then burned a [Message] scroll to speak as he left the room.

Once they were certain he had left earshot, both Demiurge and Albedo immediately turned serious.

"… Albedo, did we miss something about Ainz-sama's motives?" (Demiurge)

"He was definitely covering for her actions… but as for why, I cannot tell either." (Albedo)

With both of them having confirmed that they reached only the same incomplete conclusion, the two shared a dull sigh.

"Come to think of it, the last time he said he was lying, it was to create the story of a Spell-Sealing Crystal having that power… was Ainz-sama aware of it at the time, but wished for us to doubt his assertion and learn the method, as he told us to think for ourselves, and that he would deliberately introduce flaws into his words and plans?" (Demiurge)

"Perhaps, Demiurge, perhaps. His boundless wisdom never ceases to amaze…" (Albedo)


	15. Volume 2, Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Another two weeks passed with Tanya remaining on standby, without any further orders coming from Demiurge.

Members of a conventional aerial mage squadron would either remain at base with a telephone operator, receive sortie orders, then spend the better part of an hour suiting up and checking for any defects. After that, the battalion would either board a train, plane, or fly manually, depending on the destination and urgency of their deployment, taking anywhere from four hours to reach the national borders, up to two days when planning a no-magic paradrop into Federation territory.

She was a one-girl army fully equipped by default, carrying her entire arsenal on her person at all times. Deployment involved teleportation to E-Rantel, teleportation to one of the vassal states, or teleportation into a hostile territory. In total, anywhere from two seconds to two seconds to start at 'standby' in Nazarick and end at 'ready at X location'.

Until such a time when she was actually sent a message to do so, nobody would bother to tell her what to do – mostly. Her having been explicitly told to stay inside Nazarick, plus the ever-busy Demiurge going this long without making use of her were both dangerous red flags. Those were enough for her to act cautiously, doing her research in her own room while remaining vigilant, watching out for any irregular magic.

Strictly speaking, being inside Nazarick meant that leaving wasn't quite as simple as she treated it, due to the anti-teleportation defenses, which block movement except between certain rooms such as the Colosseum on the 6th Floor. Directly getting in – or out – wasn't possible without the [Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown], which she did not possess.

In reality, she had examined both the ring and the defensive barrier long ago; Both were surprisingly basic mechanisms, simple to imitate the former and penetrate the latter. The protection provided to the underground tomb by its World-Class Items were the only functionally complex part which she couldn't fully understand, yet they were ineffective against her, so she didn't pay them much attention.

She could disappear without anybody knowing better, and given that she regularly made a point of blocking any and all attempts at tracking her location with magic (surprisingly simple, basically just radio jamming, with a few minor changes), there was no to confirm that she was not in fact staying inside Nazarick.

To actually use this ability openly would require explaining why she had dedicated so much effort learning to circumvent Nazarick's security, so she had yet to do so beyond her initial experimentation. It was an escape card she could only take advantage of once – though this might become her chance to take advantage of it.

An undead messenger – not a maid, those understandably tend not to survive too well on the 7th Floor – came by, calling for her to come see Ainz.

This was strike two for her suspicion, since there was no practical reason for him not to send a [Message] instead, if only in advance of another contact, especially after their last interpersonal meeting almost went horribly wrong for the same reason.

She carefully knocked on the massive door, the sound of which echoed remarkably well through both the hallway and the room, and waited.

Twenty seconds later, the door was opened slightly by the maid on duty, who looked out at her.

"Ainz-sama, Tanya-sama is here to meet you."

"Let her in. The rest of you, step out." (Ainz)

The maid bowed and walked out as Tanya entered.

"… All of you, Eight Edge Assassins. Go." (Ainz)

After some skittering, those dropped off the ceiling and passed out the open door.

Tanya watched them rush out to follow Ainz's order, following the last one with her eyes until it passed through, then nodding to the maid, who closed the door. She couldn't see the invisible creatures leave to know they had actually left, hence the signal.

They were invisible, but that magic did nothing to mask their mana signatures; Not even [Perfect Unknowable] could, given that the concept didn't exist in the system which creates tier magic. Modifying the spell to fix that fault was one of her plans, but higher tier spells were fittingly difficult to modify, so working through changes to the ninth tier was deep into her backlog.

_Considering __my__ recent inability to detect somebody, __she __might have beaten __me __to creating a superior version, so stealing that __research __might be __faster__, though __doing so would require the contradictory accomplishment of detecting the usage of magic to become undetectable, so perhaps not. __Do spiders become more or less scary when you can't see them? I'm going to go with 'more'._

For the same reason, Ainz and Pandora's Actor were simple enough to tell apart. Doppelgangers could copy personality based on her memory, but without him knowing what a mana signature was, he couldn't actually copy that from Ainz, leaving a glaring contradiction visible to her.

Though, actually, that memory reading used to create a Doppelganger's mimicry was liable to leak what she knew about Ainz's real personality to Pandora's Actor himself, so he was unlikely to approve a plan using him as a double with her around.

The one in the office with her was, without a doubt, Ainz himself.

"It's just us here now, don't worry and speak freely." (Ainz)

Her initial suspicion about him came as a result of the comment he used to start the meeting.

Why had he bothered to point this out, when this was already the understanding between them?

She checked the room for anybody who might be observing, but the only magic active were her own, and the numerous enchantments naturally swirling around Ainz. Strange, but no observation here, so she moved on.

"… Alright, then. What did you need?" (Tanya)

"Take a look at these plans from Demiurge, about what will be done with the Theocracy and the Holy Kingdom." (Ainz)

Ainz passed a few pages to Tanya. She accepted them, reading through them in a matter of seconds before handing them back.

This was the summarized version given to Ainz with the intention of not wasting his time, far from the dictionary-sized complete plans she had received the last time, which really did take her half a day to read through and understand. The fact that he could create a summary this short without simultaneously made her respect his genius, and hate him for making her read the full version first.

"… I'm not sure about his estimates for how far the civil war in the Holy Kingdom would be accelerated by this, but it's reasonable enough. No comment on the Theocracy, I trust his plan, anyway I can't begin to guess at predicting the details about how they would act." (Tanya)

"Then, this one?" (Ainz)

He took back the first document and pulled out a second, handing it to her.

Just like the first, she began flicking through the pages, except this time, rather than maintaining neutrality, her expression subtly jumped between confusion, interest, amazement, ending with disappointment.

"I had honestly expected better from Pandora's Actor, but no, this isn't even close." (Tanya)

"Hoh?" (Ainz)

Ainz prodded her to continue, all while Tanya seemed genuinely surprised he didn't already know.

"It was in Demiurge's report, wasn't it originally your idea? Collecting magic in a Spell-Sealing Crystal, then break it to release energy into the surroundings?" (Tanya)

She watched as his eyes flared up, then after sensing an unknown minor spell effect activate on him, vanish into darkness.

"Ah, yes, so that's how it worked." (Ainz)

Tanya flipped back to the page corresponding to 'amazement' in her map of expressions.

"Still, how did he get half the formula correct just from what he saw… and the other half wasn't what I used, but… this might actually be usable. Mind if I keep this?" (Tanya)

It was a given that since Pandora's Actor was specialized in magic items rather than magic engineering, he would come to a completely different conclusion. Inevitably, being trapped in a mindset which built conclusions based on knowledge about a game would block him from figuring out a theory based on concepts which didn't exist in his memory.

At the same time, this paper clearly demonstrated that she made the same oversight. This world was clearly missing basic laws of physics. Assuming that the laws of magic she studied would carry over in an identical form might explain why despite properly triggering a core fusion, the blast would leave an unsuspecting, unprepared player completely unharmed except for some ruffled clothes.

The effects of a player's stats could not be underestimated, if one could perfectly protect against an attack of that magnitude in an instant. Either that, or the reaction had been incomplete due to yet another property of this world unknown to her, and could hopefully be improved if she could somehow work this new theory into it.

"… You read and analyzed those as quickly as Albedo does…" (Ainz)

"There's a difference in our perception of time. Rather, being able to process information this quickly without cheating like I am, those two really are singularities of intelligence." (Tanya)

"Aren't you already close enough? The way I see it, you could probably lead them better than I could." (Ainz)

Was that a genuine offer? Did he seriously want advice?

Though Tanya briefly considered the theory that Ainz was trying to entrap her into something, she couldn't imagine why. It wasn't as though he needed evidence to obey a judicial process, he merely needed to order anything he wanted done. Albedo would make for a far more terrifying interrogator, she could probably worm information out of Tanya without her even realizing what was happening.

"Nazarick is running better than fine as it is. You have clear growth, external threats are steadily decreasing, and clearly you have reliable plans for the future. Demiurge, Albedo… Pandora's Actor too. They're talented, really talented, trust them, keep directing them like you have, and they'll bring you results, just like they have until now." (Tanya)

His flaming eyes locked on to her own as they sat on opposite sides of his huge desk.

"Know this: Neither I, nor anybody else, could replace you, and neither should we. Nazarick cannot be run by anybody except you, the '41 Supreme Beings' mean more to them than we who weren't created as NPCs could possibly imagine." (Tanya)

Had she gone too far with layering on the praise that he instead got suspicious?

"I see… is that how you see them? They're loyal, but for the very same reasons you just mentioned, communicating my intentions to them isn't the easiest. With them, I look away for a day and they've burned an entire kingdom to the ground." (Ainz)

"-And if that kingdom contained a legitimate threat, I would advocate the exact same policy. Players, Dragon Lords, anybody and anything with the possibility of becoming a threat in the future should be exterminated for the sake of our safety. The only difference between our approaches is that I would prefer to avoid another total war, even at the cost of a bit of inefficiency.

If you still want my advice as an outsider, fine. Focus on hunting down the Dragon Lords you know of before they can group up and become a threat. Treat them as nations trying to form a coalition against you, destroy them even at the cost of temporarily antagonizing the regional powers that are humanoid nations. There's no 'Good' and 'Evil' here, only national interests." (Tanya)

She had to shut down this assumption before he tried treating her as an anchor to humanity. There were others with that role – Sebas, Pestunia, and Nigredo to name a few – but those who saw humans as slaves or insects were the majority, obviously including Albedo and Demiurge.

Their presence ensured there would never be a peaceful faction to Nazarick. Without Ainz's intervention, they might well have gotten executed already.

Knowing that, Tanya certainly wasn't planning on joining up with them.

"… Even if I wanted to, helping humanity would contradict our goals and endanger Nazarick. There's taking risks, and then there's standing against Albedo, Demiurge, Shalltear, and probably nine out of ten others at the same time. I'm not suicidal. It's impossible for me." (Tanya)

"You couldn't? Not even if I named you one of the Floor Guardians?" (Ainz)

Although Ainz proposed it so casually, Tanya had to pause briefly and think of an appropriate response.

She answered by laughing.

"… Giving an officer you hired less than a year ago a directorship? Funny. But seriously, unless you want to open an HR department for Nazarick, you would have to take those responsibilities away from the others, and you know they'd interpret a promotion for me as a demotion for them, a sign that you've lost trust for them." (Tanya)

He, apparently not expecting an outright rejection, watched as if to study her.

Though Ainz was not going out of his way to act majestic, the aura which accompanied his natural magic power was nonetheless pressuring. After sufficient practice, the process of acting had begun to worm its way into his regular behavior.

For a few seconds, they simply watched each other, to the point where even Tanya who had grown used to the presence of career generals felt slightly uncomfortable.

"You would refuse a promotion? You, of all people?" (Ainz)

From his toneless voice and stony skull, Ainz almost seemed angry at having his offer refused.

Still, Tanya met his gaze and nodded.

"That's right. I'd rather not undermine the entire organization for an empty promotion." (Tanya)

There was no salary raise here, no increase in vacation days. She didn't need new subordinates, and becoming technically equal to the rest of the Floor Guardians wouldn't equate to earning their respect. She already had Ainz's support, and binding herself more closely to Nazarick wouldn't strengthen that tie.

Worse, there was the possibility of those who loved Ainz above all else might read into it as the act of an upstart trying to steal political power for herself. There were enemies to be made, new responsibilities to shoulder, and nothing to gain by accepting.

"… Interesting." (Ainz)

He stood up, walking around the side of the large desk, past the chair Tanya was sitting in.

She stood up, watching Ainz's back as he stopped a distance between her and the door.

"You have your answer, then?" (Ainz)

"Huh? To what?" (Tanya)

Tanya asked, but Ainz didn't answer. Rather, nothing she'd said could be interpreted as a question to be answered. He only continued to stand still, directing his attention elsewhere.

Suddenly, the pieces fit together in her head, forming into a conclusion which seemed obvious in hindsight.

"-my apologies, Ainz-sama, I said too much." (Tanya)

"Hah, it's fine. I did permit you to speak casually while we were here. Now, that's enough, end this." (Ainz)

Just as he ordered this, one of the numerous enchantments swirling through him faded away.

"-Shit. I checked myself and the room, but didn't think you'd hide it on yourself. Who was on the other end?" (Tanya)

"Nigredo, primarily… you haven't seen half her abilities, I figured she could make a fair judgment." (Ainz)

"Right, 'primarily' her? No need to say who the idea came from originally. I suspected this might have been the case, but couldn't figure it out. You tricked me, congratulations, congratulations. Why bother, though?" (Tanya)

"Unpermitted dealing with marked outsiders. Concealing information from superiors. Claiming a title of royalty. Independent weapons development. Et cetera. Quite the list of allegations you've built up… from a certain point of view." (Ainz)

The first few charges were read out as if remembering something from a list, but after only a couple of them, he gave up on trying to remember the rest. Even these were barely a quarter of the full list he had first read, so abandoning the effort where he had was an understandable choice.

Tanya shrugged.

"Well, I would refuse interrogation by domination as described in _Law of the Sorcerer King, Volume 2_, section 3. If that's all, can I start resisting arrest now?" (Tanya)

"Haha, if you want to volunteer for testing out Demiurge's defensive preparations, by all means, be my guest." (Ainz)

"… Nevermind… I don't think I said anything self-incriminating enough to worry, perceived disrespect aside. Although, you really did say it was just the two of us, what were you planning on doing if I leaked something to expose you?" (Tanya)

"They don't believe me when I tell them I'm not perfect, why would they trust what you say about me…?" (Ainz)

Tanya nodded, and Ainz continued.

"Well, your assumption for whose idea it was is probably correct, but your reasoning is backwards. Albedo proposed this as a solution to clear you for new responsibilities." (Ainz)

"Really? That's certainly unexpected, I figured she would try taking the chance to get rid of me." (Tanya)

"Albedo isn't so foolish as to discard a card I consider useful. Working towards your own interests isn't exactly a crime, so long as it's not causing harm, and in this case, the outcome seems to speak for itself." (Ainz)

"-If you say so." (Tanya)

"Aahhhhh, I want a vacation." (Ainz)

"Why don't you take one then?" Tanya asked offhandedly. She spoke while mimicking his much deeper voice, "To rest is as much the duty of an attendant as the work they perform… what sort of ruler would I be if I could not so much as reward those most loyal to me with the opportunity to take time off?" (Tanya)

"Oi, you didn't seriously…" (Ainz)

"Demiurge's _Compilation of Wisdom, Volume __8_. It was required reading from him." (Tanya)

Again she saw the unknown skill activate as he continued to look away from her. His was a perfect poker face, of course, with no facial muscles to respond despite her prodding.

"If they aren't taking the message to heart… from Volume 6, there's-" (Tanya)

"-On second thought, this should be brought to Albedo's attention…" (Ainz)

"-Seriously, how did your friends design somebody so terrifying?" (Tanya)

"Even if you ask me that now, a game was a game, and they were characters we dedicated ourselves to creating. There are some individual differences in opinion but… I think they would have been proud to see them, living as they are. No, I'm certain Tabula Smaragdina would stop at nothing to see the characters born from the themes he loved." (Ainz)

"Taken to the extreme, any human ideal can create a monster?" (Tanya)

"Hm? Was that a well-known quote in your world?" (Ainz)

"No, just something spoken behind my back, in various forms, by various people." (Tanya)

That exact quote wasn't something she had ever specifically heard, not in that form, but an amalgamation of similar wordings from a number of people.

The ideal student, who studied enough languages to signal himself as learned; The ideal employee, completing assignments as befitting his station; The ideal manager, who could make capable human capital working for him believe they were well-respected, all while mercilessly cutting off the unnecessary fat as corporate policy dictated.

One encounter with an obnoxious ex-self-proclaimed deity later, the second time around, she instead had to become the ideal orphan, the ideal soldier, the ideal military officer. At least, that was the outward impression she did her best to project.

Now, what was her ideal this third time? She wasn't certain herself, strangely enough.

"… Wouldn't you fit in with them just fine, then? If the last year is anything to go by, the extra floor that is the Surface will be added on to Nazarick as an additional floor before long. Soon enough, it'll need a Floor Guardian." (Ainz)

"I already explained the internal issues which would almost inevitably arise. Aside from those, any way you look at it, the position is too public for me. We all but know the Dragon Lords are a legitimate threat, and if we use Shalltear as an estimate for the strength of what a level 100 entity can reach, I've tried fighting her enough times to know I wouldn't be able to reliably win." (Tanya)

"What makes you so confident about them being at that level? The only one I've met calling himself a 'dragon lord' died instantly to a single [Grasp Heart]. That Player too, he had none of the strength to match his level, even the girl you picked out from the Theocracy is a better piece, when you include mentality for fighting. Those fights were all utterly anticlimactic." (Ainz)

Hearing Ainz's dismissive tone genuinely angered Tanya for the first time in a while. After everything, to abandon his caution after a couple countries and a new World-Class Item fell into his possession.

Pushing her magic to the absolute limit, she sped up her perception and boosted her physical strength, as far as she could. Simultaneously, she sealed the room to prevent any sound from escaping.

It exhausted her, but for a moment, she could surpass Cocytus, Sebas, Shalltear, Albedo, and of course, Ainz himself. She pulled out Razor's Edge – at this range it was faster than a rifle, effective with its innate ability to ignore defenses when pumped full of magic, and just holding it wouldn't tax her lackluster swordsmanship – and faster than he could blink (or the undead equivalent), pressed the tip against his skull.

"**Is this a game to you!?**" (Tanya)

Ainz drew back from her weapon and sudden yelling.

"You are mortal. Never forget this." (Tanya)

Tanya flicked the blade back to the side, the threat being made, just in case he was moving towards the idea of defending himself. Whether or not she was actually capable of killing him here was not actually relevant, what was important was making him fear that she might be able to. That even she was able to harm him, levels be damned.

"You've fought seriously, what, two, three times? I've had to spent years in the trenches, flying missions daily and getting shelled nightly, day after day, with no end! How many times do you think I've nearly gotten killed? You can have nine hundred ninety-nine flawless days, then the day before the war ends, a sniper takes your head off. There is no drama in war. There is no convenient three-act story being directed. Don't try to set up climactic fights, learn Lanchester's laws instead." (Tanya)

Taking a deep breath, she took a step back and continued.

"I have several independent sources warning about them, from people well aware of your power. Even without those, they've survived for all these centuries and killed a number of other players before you arrived. No matter how powerful you might become, any of you can get cut down all the same. You. Are. Not. Special." (Tanya)

Except through all that, Ainz merely continued watching, unflinching, serenely listening without fear or concern.

"-I know that much. All our caution up until now has been towards that purpose. We're already watching the few we know of, searching legends and records for the others, and this is already pushing our librarians, what more are you expecting us to do?" (Ainz)

"Like I said, destroy them proactively, don't give them the initiative. Find them and bring overwhelming force down on them." (Tanya)

Ainz looked to her with suspicion.

"Why are you so obsessed with getting rid of them, specifically?" (Ainz)

"Because we're long past reconciliation, the only route to peace left is threat eradication. I'm willing to assume the greatest threat out of a player comes from World-Class Items, whereas the Dragon Lords are a complete unknown and certainly hostile." (Tanya)

"-It's because we know that, that we are trying to entrap them and study them, even if it means giving up a false defeat to ensure victory in the second round. Surely your answer to everything isn't a full frontal assault?" (Ainz)

"Then aggressively try to assassinate them. Take hostages to bait them, then kill them together with the hostage to be certain. Start a war for extermination and kill anybody who comes trying to play hero. You have the greatest demonic minds in the world working under you, surely they can come up with something more creative? The point is, there are no laws of war, therefore we are justified in anything we carry out in the name of victory." (Tanya)

"-Again, if it was so easy, why wouldn't Demiurge have suggested it already, instead of continuing to do nothing but observe them?" (Ainz)

Certainly, that was consistently at the core of their plans, but why? It was a legitimate question, one she had to think about a few moments before coming up with a theory.

"… It's just a guess, but could it be that since you gave the order to start conquering the world, albeit accidentally, they're focusing on finishing that above all else?" (Tanya)

"Ah," he muttered with a flicker of understanding. "If I ordered them to spread the name and glory of Nazarick, they wouldn't even consider discreet assassinations, would they… a fake-dramatic battle fits that goal instead…" (Ainz)

"…" (Tanya)

"… And there's no way to back out on it now, since I already gave them that goal…" (Ainz)

"…" (Tanya)

"… That being said, the usability of dedicated assassins in YGGDRASIL's high-level meta was limited at best, so you won't often find them outside the most devoted roleplayers or themed NPCs… Solution is too low-leveled to stand a reasonable chance against anybody who can themselves threaten us… Pandora's Actor as Nishiki Enrai? But, with no support, sending him on his own…" (Ainz)

"…" (Tanya)

"… What is it, you've just been staring in bemusement instead of arguing anything for a while now?" (Ainz)

"No, I was just thinking about how you completely change when it comes to those topics. It's strange seeing you suddenly turning self-assured and confident as soon as that subject comes up." (Tanya)

He looked down at her.

"I don't want to hear that from somebody who suddenly pretends to threaten somebody with a sword just to make a point." (Ainz)

"-I think you're missing the point…" (Tanya)

"I have my own experience, which tells me you had no intention of following through with the threat. While I understand what you're describing, and recognize the threat of these Dragon Lords, we have too little information to work off of, in either their capabilities or whereabouts. At best, we know of the Republic to the north, the Flying City to the south, and vague references to the grand dragon on the tallest peak on this continent, though the last is mere legend. The former are already planned for observation with what spies we have, yet attacking him in his base would be stupid, certainly won't be anywhere near as clean as this last time. Unless you think you can lead a frontal assault yourself?" (Ainz)

"No, I don't intend to try that on my own." (Tanya)

"We simply do not have the resources to chase legends in search of an unconfirmed threat." (Ainz)

Pulling several Guardians away to subjugate the Elf King had been successful, but not without interruptions to their regular missions. The military side might be mostly fine due to the attention it received, but on the other side, the woefully understaffed bureaucracy under Albedo would inevitably suffer were she forced away for longer than a day.

Tanya was aware of this as well, from the brief period she was assigned to the same task only to immediately be buried by the ludicrous volume of work Albedo finished daily.

"By Albedo's reasoning, pulling you back to take over part of the administrative work would be better than letting you rampage around in the outside world. You revealed yourself to the public as is, it won't be long before we start pulling aggro from those same enemies you are trying to avoid. That's what the clearance was for, to see whether you held ambition which would stand in the way of that work." (Ainz)

"… That's…" (Tanya)

"Unsatisfied? It's the desk job you've always wanted, well out of the way of any approaching dragons." (Ainz)

"… I can't believe I'm saying this, but no. The personal safety benefits are unbelievably tempting, yet continuing to sit here filing papers won't make progress in the right direction. Preparing for integration would be great for peacetime, but we simply aren't – we're always at war, until such a time when no more threats exist, and I'm certain that there exist beings against whom the peak of our capabilities would only draw a single drop of blood…" (Tanya)

Dropping the grim topic, Tanya put aside the argument and went off on a tangent.

"The way you explained it, my actions outside would cause issues due to the recognition of those around? Contrarily, it wouldn't be a problem were the same to be done in a distant land, yes?" (Tanya)

She again turned serious.

"A while ago, I heard a story from a reliable source, that centuries ago, on the opposite side of the great desert, there existed a nation whose entire population was turned to undead overnight. Does any magic you know of fit this description?" (Tanya)

Ainz thought for only a moment, before immediately reaching a conclusion.

"None. It may be possible for a World-Class Item, but if so, it is not one I have ever heard of. Interesting, but again, we don't have the people to spare." (Ainz)

"Don't you, though? There's no need to internationally justify this. An unsolved mystery in a distant land, a series of independent undead cities growing for centuries, isn't this the perfect first expedition for your 'new' adventurers?" (Tanya)


	16. Volume 2, Side Story

Announcements at bottom

(Yes, if you don't understand what's going on, you can basically skip this. It has no significance to the plot. Go read Kumo desu ga instead.)

* * *

**Side Story: Vacation**

**Side: Oni**

"So bored…" muttered Sophia, sprawled on the hard hay-stuffed bed, made bearable only by the fine white cloak spread over it as a makeshift sheet. Though this in was decent by this city's standards, it was incomparably inferior compared to the castle's accommodations they had gotten used to.

At the same time, Wrath – whose cloak was by far the largest of the three, and thus was reformed into a bedsheet – quietly leaned against the nearby wall to rest. The bed was frustratingly small, but at least this way the other two could get a good rest while he slept in a nearby chair.

"Well, of course if you never do anything, it'll get boring pretty quickly. It's a vacation in a new world, what's there not to enjoy?" (Ariel)

Ariel answered cheerfully, sitting at the edge of the bed with a cup in hand.

"-Ariel-san, it's not a vacation if you don't do work to begin with." (Wrath)

"-Actually start working before taking a vacation." (Sophia)

Her argument was rejected without hesitation. Though, this was far from the first time she had heard this, so Ariel herself simply took a drink while smiling.

"New worlds are overrated. Merazophis isn't here. There's nothing to do. It's Goshujin-sama's fault. Everything is Goshujin-sama's fault." (Sophia)

First the four had been meeting in a room in the castle, then in an empty space as Shiro aggressively struggled with some dimensional magic for a few days, and finally they got dumped out onto some empty hillside plains in this world, at which point she, the only member capable of bringing them back, had promptly abandoned them and run off to do something else.

"Well, it's not like Shiro-chan forgot about us – probably – so you just have to find interesting things to kill time until she comes back to pick us up, right?" (Ariel)

She finished off the contents of the small cup, then refilled it from the nearby bottle.

In response, Wrath muttered, "please don't make sampling fine wines into something to kill time," though the way he said it, he was still easily loud enough for everybody to hear.

As for why these three would be spending a night in a shoddy inn, it was of course due to their desperate lack of finances. Neither did it help that apparently half the city had burned down (again) only a few weeks prior to their arrival, plus a large number of nobles and merchants had filtered into the city for some coronation celebration, and the jacked-up prices of any decent inn were still unreasonably high.

Certainly, they had the skills to completely any job and equipment with an ungodly price tag if sold, but when it came to immediately usable gold, they were basically down to loose change collected during the journey.

"Wrath-kun, if you need more money, just go out at night for a bit, a random encounter with some bandits always pops up, they drop gold when defeated." (Ariel)

"…" (Wrath)

He started to open his mouth to retort, but given that this had actually been their primary source of income on the way to this capital city, he couldn't say anything in response.

Needless to say, the appearance of two girls guarded only by one plain-looking swordsman, dressed in matching uniforms of the finest spider silk, was like honey to every highwayman, marauder, and bandit on the long, poorly patrolled road between the kingdom's cities. None of them were particularly wealthy, but the combined assets of half a dozen bandit groups easily added up to a hefty sum, even if they didn't bother lugging the heads to the nearest city for their bounties.

Unfortunately, those savings didn't last long when they were drained on a daily basis. Their appearance was close enough to pass as an exotic race of demihumans, so they were reluctantly allowed into the city. However, though they went to see whether it was possible to register with the local Adventurer's Guild, they were rejected on account of not being human.

"Hm, speaking of things to do, what ever happened to Katana?" (Ariel)

Ariel threw the subject of her own hobbies away. It took Wrath a few moments to figure out what her words were referring to.

"Ah, the man with the katana? I followed along since he was the first person we saw with a katana. Long story short, we ended up fighting a few rounds. He was surprisingly skilled-" (Wrath)

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sophia turn over at attention for the first time from the topic of combat.

"-but it really wasn't much of a fight. As you'd expect, the Status difference was too much." (Wrath)

She lost interest and fell back into the pillow, her own balled-up cloak.

"In terms of ability, he might even be close to the old man I fought on the mountain, just more… natural, his swordsmanship drawn from pure experience rather than being guided by a Skill. I had to hold back quite a bit just to keep it even, so there wasn't much to learn. In the end, his sword was the first to break, so I made him a replacement in exchange." (Wrath)

"Hey, don't just go giving out legendary weapons after a fight like some bad shounen manga." (Ariel)

"It's fine, I didn't add any special abilities, just gave it the same shape and turned the durability up to the maximum value." (Wrath)

"… that value being…" (Ariel)

"Enough that it shouldn't break from anything short of trying to block Shiro-san's scythe?" (Wrath)

"No, that in itself is already…" (Ariel)

Wrath looked back at Ariel in confusion. It was a weapon with no abilities, borderline useless compared to his own, just given enough durability to serve as a solid practice weapon. What was there to take issue with? The recipient himself seemed satisfied enough with the replacement.

"… Nevermind. Was there anybody stronger than that guy?" (Ariel)

"There wasn't. Apparently, he's the strongest left in this country. Of the two best adventurer parties, one went to the Agrand Republic up north, the other to the Sorcerous Kingdom in the east. If you want strong people, the former has dragons, the latter is ruled by undead." (Wrath)

"Undead!?" (Ariel)

Ariel lit up in excitement at that one word.

"Yeah, he got into a fight with this kingdom and destroyed their entire army with a single spell. The Sorcerous King, Ain… something." (Wrath)

"Right, right, they have undead, right? The walking skeletons and zombies? The kind you only see in games?" (Ariel)

"Now that I think about it, we didn't have any of those, did we? Why is that?" (Sophia)

Even Sophia was again interested, her attention binary in nature, depending on the topic.

"It's because of the shortage of souls, in a closed system, they can't just be locked up for an indefinite time in some skeleton, so a vampire progenitor like Sophia-chan is the closest we're going to get. According to Shiro-chan, even though this world also has a system, it's just attached to a stable planet, so there's no internal cycle locking the souls in…" (Ariel)

"Wait a minute. You're saying that like you've spoken to Goshujin-sama since we got here. Pick us up and send us back already!" (Sophia)

"I'm not sure why you're so excited about rotting corpses, but I guess our next destination is the Sorcerous Kingdom then? Well, both countries are supposed to treat non-humans better than this kingdom, so I don't care too much either way." (Wrath)

"Then, we've decided! I'm pretty sure that's the country Shiro-chan is investigating anyway, so it all works out." (Ariel)

"-Hey! Ariel-san, if you already knew where she is, why are we wasting time here?" (Sophia)

In her frustration, Sophia got up to shake the excessively excited Ariel, who averted her eyes.

"-Vacation?" (Ariel)

"… I give up. Whatever, let's just go. I'm tired of this kingdom, we could at least try fighting this Ain." (Sophia)

Her complaints were getting nowhere, so Sophia gave up, stepped back and started packing what little supplies they had on them.

"I'll say this just to be sure, but, Sophia-san, you get that he's the king of a country, right? We can't just randomly attack him." (Wrath)

She looked up at him with genuine shock after being told that.

"Eh? Why are we even going then?" (Sophia)

"No, please take it seriously, let's not go kicking any hornet nests… even with Ariel-san's protection, taking on an entire country would be…" (Wrath)

Sophia thought about it for a while.

"… Fine. I'll limit it to proactive self-defense. Can we go now?" (Sophia)

"-No, let's wait until tomorrow before leaving." (Ariel)

Ariel stepped up between the two, and both watched her waiting for further explanation.

"It's not like we're in a hurry, we might as well wait until tomorrow morning before leaving. Wrath-kun, you had a map, right?" (Ariel)

"Yeah, it's not too far, as far as our trips go. I think we could get there in a week, going at a decent pace." (Wrath)

"Right? It's already late afternoon, we wouldn't get far today anyway. I'll go talk to the innkeeper and get dinner, then see if there's anything interesting going on in the tavern tonight." (Ariel)

Summarizing their plans, Ariel rushed out through the door and down the stairs.

As she left, Wrath muttered with a tired expression,

"I hope we don't end up getting kicked out of the city again…"

Sophia tilted her head.

"… Again?" (Sophia)

* * *

**Side: Ketsu**

Several days passed uneventfully.

Unexpectedly uneventfully, actually, considering how their first trip to the Kingdom's capital had been.

"-Well, if I'm reading the map right, we can stop around here for the night and still reach the city of 'E-Rantel' by around midday tomorrow." (Wrath)

"Already? You said a week, it's only been three days." (Sophia)

While the three continued to walk, Wrath looked over the shoddy map they had managed to get a copy of from the castle.

"Sorry. I got the estimate from a merchant, and it more or less lined up with our last trip, so I figured it was about right. Though, theirs was assuming a loaded carriage, and I had assumed that ours would be slowed each time we ran into highwaymen…" (Wrath)

Ariel thought for a moment, then nodded along to agree with his reasoning.

"Yeah, there weren't any random encounters… the road is paved better, too, I guess they improved it recently. Though, we never saw a patrol either, I'm surprised it's as safe as it is." (Ariel)

"Ariel-san, what are you talking about? We passed two not too long ago?" (Sophia)

""Eh?""

Sophia only mentioned them as an afterthought, yet both Ariel and Wrath looked at her in confusion.

"Was there somebody like that? I don't remember seeing anybody on the road except that one caravan…" (Ariel)

"We passed them twice, in the forest, once shortly before the border, then again after crossing it. Those shadow-like things. Aren't you watching for presences? They barely even hid." (Sophia)

It was this comment which resolved their confusion, simultaneously gave both a spark of understanding, and a moment later, left them both averting their eyes from Sophia's gaze.

"… Seriously? It's been weeks, with nothing to do but train. The skill systems aren't all that different once you get used to something as basic as that." (Sophia)

"Right, but it's pointlessly hard to control your strength because of that, yes? Your misjudging by ten percent is wasting some energy, mine blows up half a tavern trying to swat away a drunk guy. Forget magic, even for basic skills, it'd basically mean relearning each of them from scratch. Too much of a bother." (Ariel)

"That's the best part! The system itself gives you free training weights, even if your status won't go up so easily, just targeting yourself with three or four continuous-damage spells at a time is as effective for practicing your magic control as twenty of them back in our world!" (Sophia)

""…""

Her obsession was alive and well, no matter the world.

Certainly, between a system which would automatically compose all magic with a skill and status adjustment, and a system where every spell had to be manually adjusted and fine-tuned to make up for the disparity, it was fairly obvious that practicing magic in the latter would improve one's skill far faster.

Going from one world to the other was like switching between a modern program and one made twenty years ago: Status was slightly distorted, detection abilities would provide false, poor-quality data, and offensive magic of all sorts might misbehave in interesting and unique ways.

Each of them had enough proficiency with their magic and skills to make use of them despite being in another world, albeit with slightly less precision, a variation of perhaps twenty percent. With ordinary fire against an ordinary bandit, this just meant the difference between leaving them medium-rare or well-done. A similar miscalculation while attempting to tear open a [Hell Gate], on the other hand, would be far from pretty.

For similar reasons, it would take a very specific type of insanity or stupidity for somebody to practice by attacking themselves with such unstable attack magic.

Where could you find such a person(monster)?

"-Though, you should probably be able to at least regenerate yourself when you accidentally erase half your body." (Sophia)

There was one right here.

"Please spare me from that…" (Wrath)

"Mm, yep, not doing that either." (Ariel)

"… Whatever. Suit yourselves." (Sophia)

With a shrug, Sophia lost interest in them and returned to her magic. A extremely thin film, barely visible to the naked eye, patches of various colors dyed it with a rainbow like the surface of a bubble.

Underneath the colored spots, her skin would be burned in places, frozen in others, but each would heal over the next instant and return to its pristine state as soon as it was discolored. In her normal state, she would have been able to more perfectly match the damage to be exactly counteracted by her natural regeneration, though bringing it this close to equilibrium was already absurd enough.

"… All of those shadows ran off in a panic the moment our eyes met… maybe this time, we can expect a warm welcome when we reach the city," Sophia muttered with a malicious smile, all while stretching in preparation for the physical side of today's exercise.

Leaving her to her own devices, Ariel began pitching an out-of-place, modern nylon tent, while Wrath set to cooking a simple soup. They could easily make do without for a few days if needed, but these habits, established over years of travel as a group, were more or less ingrained at this point.

"Status really isn't kind to the people of this world…" (Wrath)

"That bad, huh?" (Ariel)

He had merely been thinking aloud, but nonetheless heard a reply from Ariel.

"Right. Strength training alone only goes so far, they can't get any of the growth-boosting skills to optimize leveling like Sophia-san did, not to mention how much harder it is to train without any sort of Analysis to count the fruits of your labor. We can measure experience easily enough, yet I've never heard talk of Levels, only Tier Magic or Martial Arts, everything else is only legend to them." (Wrath)

"Guess I haven't been paying enough attention?" (Ariel)

Ariel dug the tent's last peg into the earth with a finger before hopping over to the increasingly fragrant soup heating over the small campfire, lit up by a crude fire-attribute dagger resting in the core of the fire.

"Ordinary people aren't too different, but take a good look at a soldier… ten years of training is barely a year of ours, matching me or Sophia would take centuries… and I honestly doubt even the most ancient of beings even come close to your level." (Wrath)

He filled one bowl, handed it over, then another for himself, which he sat to eat. Half a bowl was left for Sophia just in case, though going by recent days, she was unlikely to bother with eating.

"-Unless this world has an Administrator, that is," he finished after a pause.

Those words had the unintended side-effect of freezing the casual mood of the campground.

"Shiro-chan wouldn't bother to be so careful if we were only dealing with pseudodragons at our level… there's a True Dragon behind them… the only question is whether it's bound to the System, or free to stop us." (Ariel)

Wrath nodded back.

"And? Did those words come straight from Shiro-san, or just our theory?" (Wrath)

"Bit of both, last I checked she's still trying to find it, so no confirmation. Just said not to try conquering the world yet, to be safe. At least, until she hears back from above, don't draw the dragons' attention either." (Ariel)

A sigh leaked, a mix of his concern and relief. The unknown was worrying, but far from the worst possible situation.

"Either way, nothing changes in our plans," she concluded.

And indeed, the Sorcerous Kingdom which was their current destination was the single furthest point furthest from the Dragon Lords' influence.

The next day, they reached the gates of E-Rantel.

* * *

**Side: Maou**

"Naga?" (Wrath)

"It's a Naga…" (Sophia)

"Definitely a Naga." (Ariel)

The half-snake old man before them answered with a brief nod, unperturbed by their staring at him like some rare animal. This much was still in the polite half of reactions, as far as his daily interactions went.

"Your assumption is correct. May this one take your reactions to mean that you know of this one's species, however this is your first time meeting one?"

"There weren't any where we are from, as far as I am aware. Right, Ariel-san?" (Wrath)

"Nnnn… I knew the progenitor back in the day, but I'm pretty sure she never had any descendants, so no. Or would she be a Lamia…?" (Ariel)

"Ah, sorry, for bringing it up." (Wrath)

"It's the distant past, we weren't so close. Don't worry about it, Wrath-kun." (Ariel)

"Ahem… that aside… this one is named Ryurarius Spenia Ai Indarun, and has the honor of being an immigration official of the Sorcerous Kingdom. By your attitude, I do not expect we will have trouble, however we must nonetheless go over the rules of His Majesty's city… first and foremost, please keep in mind that no matter the appearance of any beings you might encounter, drawing weapons within the city is strictly forbidden… you came at a slightly unexpected time, I believe that the Death Knight normally by the gate was elsewhere?" (Ryurarius)

"Death Knight?" (Ariel)

"As I thought. A moment, please." (Ryurarius)

Ryurarius half-closed his eyes for a few seconds, then looked away, directing their gazes left towards a wide stone archway.

"Once again, this one would like you to see one of His Majesty's Death Knights." (Ryurarius)

From somewhere deeper in the gatehouse, slow steps thundered with steadily increasing volume. Not long after, a jet-black, colossal moving wall filled the arch, passing into the room. First the tower shield which was only barely smaller than the passage it was meant to fit through, then moving it aside, the rotting titan beneath properly came into view.

"Heh~" (Sophia)

"Well, it's pretty much what you'd expect from the name…" (Wrath)

Sophia looked only half-interested in the mobile corpse, while Wrath's lack of surprise could be summarized as 'not a particularly unique monster design', comparing it to the few games he could recall in his dissociated memories of that distant past.

As for Ariel, she had vanished from her seat-

"-WHA-" (Ryurarius)

-and in that same instant, lifted the massive armored undead with one hand, then started spinning it freely like an oversized action figure, so as to examine every part of its body.

"Ah~ knew this would happen. Why'd she have to get the useless traits from Goshujin-sama…" (Sophia)

Despite her words, Sophia continued resting her head on her hand, evidently lacking any intention of interfering in any way.

With a sigh, Wrath stepped in to try coaxing her out of her newfound obsession.

"Ariel-san, you get that you're basically assaulting a guard now, right? Maybe put it down?" (Wrath)

"Eh? I'm not though? No weapons were drawn, isn't that why it's not fighting back, just struggling to free itself?" (Ariel)

With Ariel's carefree explanation, all eyes turned back to Ryurarius, whose mouth was still gaping from the nonsensical scene they had created.

"Ah, erm, well, to prevent the possible cases of somebody bumping into one of the undead and being treated as an attacker, they do not immediately interpret physical contact as hostility… admittedly, we had never considered that one might appear with… such might." (Ryurarius)

With his shock gradually settling, he was able to return to exposition and explanation, yet continued to nervously glance around while doing so.

"… Sorry. Ariel-san was interested in seeing some undead, but… sorry. It's probably harmless to leave her to it, so could we just continue and pretend that isn't happening?" (Wrath)

"This must certainly be reported to His Majesty afterwards, but I suppose… they are not harming the Death Knight's purpose. However, before that, this one has a question for you, if you do not mind answering: What did you come to this city to do? If by some chance you came with confidence in your strength, seeking to oppose His Majesty the Sorcerer King, please abandon those ambitions immediately. You would not be the first to attempt doing so, and given how there are no end of fools in this world, you would not be the last. All sorts of monsters have passed through these gates in the months I have watched them, and to each I spoke this advice." (Ryurarius)

Wrath easily met the Naga's intimidating stare, as if uninterested in the weight behind his words.

"Of course not. It's as you can see, idle tourism." (Wrath)

"Tourism… travelers without a destination. Such idleness is a privilege reserved for the strong. There was a time when I entertained such thoughts myself, when I thought myself my own master…" (Ryurarius)

"-Enough already. You like talking, we get it. Are we done? Next rule." (Sophia)

His next monologue didn't get far before Sophia interrupted him.

The Naga simply chuckled and said, "I suppose patience come with age," leaving her scowling and irritated.

"Do not worry, there is not much more. The rules I must explain are only those immediately relevant, mostly for human visitors who would otherwise reflexively draw their weapons against the undead in our streets. Aside from that, please be aware that in the event you are investigated in relation to a crime, mind-control magic may be used. Although this is rarely necessary, we make this clear before anybody enters the city to eliminate any disagreements in the future." (Ryurarius)

"Fine, try it if you can. Is that all… or are you still going to try stopping us?" (Sophia)

Again ignoring her provocation, he simply looked over to Wrath and Ariel to confirm that neither of them were objecting – neither did – and nodded.

"Very good, very good. Please be mindful of the possibility that your presence and abilities may be of interest to His Majesty or his subordinates, and so you may be asked to appear at the castle in the coming weeks. With that said, we are indeed finished, and you are free to pass into the city. This one welcomes you to the Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown." (Ryurarius)

* * *

Wrath gave up and released a long sigh as soon as he passed into the building.

"Fourteen minutes, thirty-nine seconds. It's my win." (Sophia)

From just behind him, Sophia's voice rang out clearly, a perfect opposite of his own.

"… Yeah, I'd figured we'd at least go look for an inn or the Adventurer's Guild or something first, she didn't even hesitate once… how did she even know where to go, none of us have been in the city before." (Wrath)

"Don't underestimate Ariel-san's looseness once you strip away what little responsibility there is." (Sophia)

"Our travel log has completely turned into a wine-tasting tour…" (Wrath)

"Are these even any different? They all taste awful to me." (Sophia)

"If I had to say, there's far more variety available in this world, compared to our own. Although the quality you get asking for something higher-end at a local bar is comparable to what Ariel might have had back in our world, the real difference comes from how expansive this world is. Rather that the habitable region being limited to just a single continent with a mostly uniform climate, here we can find exotic products imported from distant countries. Most likely, the novelty of trying each of these is what's drawing Ariel-san's interest… I'm not an expert, though." (Wrath)

"… No, you've been getting into this just as much as her, haven't you…" (Sophia)

"Now, there's no need to argue, sit down, start ordering!" (Ariel)

As they continued to stand at the entrance, Ariel called for them across the room, oblivious or perhaps unconcerned by the numerous stares already being directed at the pair of girls who each appeared to be individually dropping the average age in the tavern by a few years.

Of course, this was the Sorcerous Kingdom, and no small number of visitors passing through this tavern wouldn't be human. Such visual appraisal would be entirely meaningless if, for instance, the girl in question had horns growing out of her head. However, even discounting her age, the girl's choice of outfit was already more than enough to attract an equivalent amount of attention.

Still, nobody complained. In another city, another country, or another world, some drunkard might have risen up to complain about kids in the bar, but that development would be premised on the nonsensical idea that drunk men would for some reason not want to have cute girls in the tavern, and anybody drunk or foolish enough to utter those words would be beaten up by his fellow patrons before she was so much as given a chance to respond.

To begin with, barfights of any form were already a rarity within the Sorcerous Kingdom. Though Death Knights would not come rushing to break up a mere fistfight, alcohol and prudence rarely went hand-in-hand. Men too drunk to remember where they would think themselves clever and pull a knife on their opponent, only to be bisected by a guard the next instant. It didn't take long for the regulars to learn the value of keeping things civil.

However, no matter the country, patrons of a tavern had their own way of fighting.

* * *

Ryurarius passed into the castle, slithering with the appropriate haste to move quickly, just short of rushing and appearing disrespectful.

"… Excuse me. Is there anybody present to receive a report on behalf of His Majesty?" (Ryurarius)

"I'll take it, what is it?" (Tanya)

"Ah, Tanya-sama, you were in the city?" (Ryurarius)

"Just passing by, I was planning on heading back out soon. Is it an emergency?" (Tanya)

"This one is uncertain. A group of travelers passed into the city, who possess extraordinary strength. As they are not immediately hostile, it may not exactly qualify as an emergency, however this one wished to report and ask for instruction on how to proceed." (Ryurarius)

"Alright, I'll check it out. Good work." (Tanya)

"Thank you very much… should we have the patrolling undead search for their location?" (Ryurarius)

"That won't be necessary, keep them at a distance. With a volume of mana that ridiculous, I can feel out the general direction even from this distance. They won't be hard to pinpoint. I'll take care of everything." (Tanya)

* * *

It was a scene of carnage.

Bodies littered the floor, tables and chairs scattered or overturned, throwing mugs into the air, empty or half-full alike, their contents splattered across wall and floor. To simply walk from one side of the room to the opposite would mean wading through fallen combatants, taking care not to step into puddles of unidentified liquid.

This was no battlefield. No, it was a massacre, the inevitable outcome of the arrogant and foolish challenging the impossibly powerful using the weapon they thought themselves proficient with, yet learning themselves mere novices who would have a better chance of winning a match of arm-wrestling against a dragon.

Was it the pride of men, which made them refuse to surrender, unable to accept defeat at the hands of somebody so much smaller than themselves, to continue fighting until the end, even when this outcome was already certain?

So the battle raged on.

Sophia was the first to taste defeat, falling unconscious at the table before the first round had concluded. It was an obvious outcome, but one would be a fool to misunderstand this as a sign that the others would be similarly weak.

Several rounds later a few more followed: Humans, Orcs, Goblins, one by one they fled or fell, the number of combatants dropping by the minute.

Wrath chose to withdraw not long after, while he was still mostly sensible. Though a few of the survivors were groggy and barely hanging on, he knew full well the futility of continuing, and saw no need to go further, having already tried one of each unique offering which had piqued his interest.

He sat back and watched as two Dwarves struggled, then drank their last. A huge man who wouldn't look out of place in a pack of Ogres, carried this far by his confidence, finally collapsed backwards, shaking the building with the impact of his landing. And lastly, a green-scaled Lizardman, a veteran of a hundred such battles, succumbed before the boundless potential of his opponent.

As he fell, Ariel unceremoniously set another barrel on the ground, having finished drinking.

And then there were two. Three, if the bartender busy carefully writing up tabs was included – his ability to ignore everything tempered daily until he simply concluded that monsters were, at very least, great for business – and so he faded into the shadows, looking the other way no matter the developing chaos.

"… Well, we knew it would end up like this." (Wrath)

"It always does~"

-And where there were two, then there were three.

"Ah, Shiro-chan, when did you get here?" (Ariel)

She appeared on the next seat, unnoticed until her first words, half-full glass of red wine already in hand.

"Eh~ I've been here the whole time, testing applied dimensional magic to isolate myself for imitation invisibility…" (Shiro)

"Uh, Shiro-san, how much have you been drinking?" (Wrath)

"Like- I- Said- I saw you entering the city and walked in with you, but none of you ever noticed…" (Shiro)

Draining the glass, she set it on the table with an exaggerated pout.

"Too much then…" Ariel muttered while slowly sliding away.

"Don't be silly, I'm completely normal, see," she replied with a laugh, flicking her hand. The next instant, a gash tore from one corner of space, across the tile and tables, passing past her fingertip before digging into the ground beneath them.

"Ah…" the table fell into two pieces. Looking down, the few meters of flooring which had been removed similarly extended downwards, a void passing through foundation and earth alike.

"Eh, that happens sometimes, it's fine, it's fine, they'll put some plywood over it!" (Shiro)

She laughed again, filling up another glass. Leaning back, she brought it up to her lips, but before she had the chance to start drinking, the door opened – or rather, was blasted open by the girl who flew straight through it, into the tavern.

Splinters of wood scattered across the floor, revealing the girl, fully armed for combat and in the early stages of mana exhaustion from rushing in response.

Their eyes – did not meet.

As one began to stare with her mouth agape, uncertain of how to proceed with the situation; the other kept drinking without minding the shrapnel scattering around her table.

A few quiet seconds passed with confused glances exchanged all around.

"-What the hell happened-"

The crack of glass striking wood interrupted her attempt at a question.

"-If you're a magical girl, why don't you dress up cuter once in a while!?" (Shiro)

She cried out, slamming the again-empty wine glass against her half of the table, still standing upright in defiance of gravity.

"-?" (Tanya)

Silence fell. All eyes moved to her.

"-alright, let's do just that!" she continued, standing up.

One took a step forward, delighted; the other took half a step backward, sensing impending doom.

Before her foot landed, she froze in place.

No matter her struggling, whether through raw strength or with magical enhancement, she could no longer move a muscle below her neck. She was left stuck, able only to look forward, with a single half-open scarlet eye watching back.

Immediately, she began trying to work a formula to interfere with the binding, but gave up just as quickly. Breaking out might not be impossible, however doing so in a timely manner certainly was.

Giving up, she switched to teleportation, seeking to get out of the building, but that too was obstructed. The single open eye widened slightly as soon as she began to try, crushing her under a maelstrom of magic power. Every effort to continue writing a formula scattered faster than a design drawn using food coloring in an ocean midway through a hurricane.

In other words, her power had been stripped, blocked off and washed away on a whim.

She could only watch in unease, tinged with growing dread.

Step by step, the girl drew closer. Her hand stuck into a void in space, and from within, she pulled out a small, white, decorated dress, covered in an uncountable number of frills.

Screams echoed through the night.

* * *

Tanya hung in the very center of the room, suspended by strands of web, her limbs locked loosely into a shape halfway between a T and a Y.

The armor she had worn coming here was laying around, pieces scattered across the floor and tables. In its place, she had been dressed in a delicate dress of pure white. At the very top, an obnoxiously large ribbon, aside from which nearly the entire surface of the fabric was covered in frills and trimmings, extending down to just above her knees with an intrusively wide layered skirt. Even her socks and the pieces which shouldn't be seen had been replaced to match.

Newly dressed, she continued to hang limp, gazing into the distance with a thousand-mile-stare. Without magic, she could neither resist nor interfere with her own consciousness, perceiving everything being done to her with the perfect detail awareness granted by [Detection], unable to tone it down.

More than any battlefield, it tore open the sealed trauma of her past, the terror of being forced to film propaganda for Public Relations. So she hung, that experience of the past mixing with her present situation to create a new, inescapable hell for her, until she grew numb to the point of dissociation, separating herself from the doll being stripped and dressed by the drunk god.

That was over an hour ago now, though Tanya had lost track of exactly how long it was. The culprit had since left, falling asleep on the spot before getting carried out by the still-conscious girl, who carried the two unconscious girls, walking out with a simple, "Sorry!"

Blaming her wouldn't really be fair, there wasn't too much she could do to help, and neither had she asked in her half-conscious state. Rationally she understood this, yet the casual nonchalance with which she left irritated her nonetheless. Thus, Tanya was left alone with the sole male, the oni trying to clean up after them.

There wasn't much he could do about the gaping void torn into the foundation, but he could at least pick up the tables, gather the wood splinters and glass shards of anything broken, and lift the door back onto its hinges, carefully avoiding the wires of webbing crossing the room.

"… hey…" she muttered, barely louder than a whisper. He paused for an instant, but immediately resumed his cleaning.

"Hey. Do something about this already." (Tanya)

"Sorry… there's nothing I can do." (Wrath)

"Are you wearing those swords as a decoration? Cut me down from here." (Tanya)

"No, but it's impossible to cut through her web, no matter what I tried… I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait for her to wake up again." (Wrath)

She looked at him in amazement.

"Forget the web, cut at the arm, just above the glove." (Tanya)

"Are you sane?" (Wrath)

"I can regenerate it as soon as the web is removed, the damn thing is getting in the way of my magic. Do it." (Tanya)

He looked at her with suspicion.

"Wouldn't those undead guards rush in if I did that? What are you trying?" (Wrath)

"I ordered them to stay away from this area to keep it civil. Besides, you aren't considering them as a threat, are you?" (Tanya)

Just as she said, despite the chaos they had already caused, not one person – living or dead – had entered after her.

"Fine, don't blame me for the results," he said with a sigh, drawing one of his katanas and raising it to her level.

At that point he thought about asking again to make sure, but seeing her already watching and waiting in resolution, Wrath raised the sword and swung down.

His sword cut cleanly and easily through her thin arm, her skin being hardened beyond an ordinary human's, but nowhere near enough to stop a sword of the highest quality. Dark blood poured out, staining the floor below.

Tanya grit her teeth from the acute pain, a single tear pooling in her eye from feeling every nerve cry out without being able to numb it using a magic formula.

Pushing it aside as best she could, she concentrated her magic on the missing arm, the one part of her body where magic was no longer being obstructed. With some effort, the stump glowed, then rapidly regenerated into its original form, scattered blood and separated hand alike dissolving into nothingness.

The strand of webbing fell away, having lost its connection, sticking to the floorboard on which it landed. Only the white glove which had been placed onto her mysteriously followed, reforming on her freed hand.

"You weren't kidding, that's some impressing healing speed…" Wrath muttered seeing this display, though her focus was elsewhere.

Pushing magic through the one hand available to her, she slowly reconstructed the spell needed to access her inventory space, using it to pull out the sharpest thing she had lying inside – the sword, Razor's Edge, which had been gathering metaphorical dust ever since it came into her possession.

Without hesitation, she swung it first through her legs and tail, then, pulling herself upwards to get some momentum, cut off the other arm. She landed a couple seconds after that, her limbs already fully healed by the time she reached the ground. Immediately, she began stretching out the stiffness while mumbling complaints.

Wrath, for his part, had his attention focused exclusively on the sword in her hand.

"If you don't mind, could I examine that sword?" He asked without a second thought, knowing full well that asking to borrow her weapon was a long shot, especially with their working relationship starting out as roughly as it had.

She, however, shrugged and flipped it over, passing him the handle indifferently. Were it her primary weapon it might be different, but in her hands it was nothing more than a needlessly sharp butter knife.

"Thanks." he accepted the blade. Bringing the edge to his eye, he began to carefully analyze the weapon.

His eyes went wide.

"To think something like this actually existed here, just where did you get this…" (Wrath)

"It used to be a national treasure belonging to the Kingdom to the west, though as for where it actually came from, I couldn't say." (Tanya)

"Calling it a 'national treasure' doesn't begin to describe it… if you had something like this, you could have just cut the web." (Wrath)

"Are you kidding me? It's a bit late for that now, isn't it? You said it couldn't be cut." (Tanya)

Instead of arguing, Wrath reached over, picked up one of his swords, and in one smooth motion, attacked one of the strands of web stuck to the floor.

The speed of the blade was incredible, to the point where Tanya could barely follow its trajectory. A gust of air shot out, rattling every table in the direction he had swung. Yet, the blade paused abruptly the instant it made contact with the web, stuck in place without the latter so much as vibrating from the impact.

He gave it a good tug, but it refused to budge, so he let go, leaving it stuck perfectly in place.

"My swords are among the sharpest blades in existence. Their quality is incomparably higher than that treasure sword. And yet-" (Wrath)

Placing the crystalline blade against the web, he smoothly poured magic into the blade before swiftly drawing it across the web. Without resistance, the thin strand was cut and fell to the ground, allowing him to pull both swords free.

"-it can cut. To put it simply, it's a different sort of existence, to be able to interact with materials which exist outside this world's magic system, in ways an ordinary weapon like mine can't. It's a property I've only ever see once before, that being on her – Shiro-san's scythe. Whoever made this is an abnormally dangerous being." (Wrath)

As he explained, he sheathed his own sword, and then, reluctantly, returned her sword. She brought it to another pieces of web as he had, cutting it down and collecting it for herself.

"Hah, for 'her' to be called Shiro, that's one hell of a coincidence…" (Tanya)

"Coincidence?" (Wrath)

"Hm?" (Tanya)

"?" (Wrath)

"… I already thought it was strange, but with that name… could it be that you're all originally Japanese?" (Tanya)

"Ah, there it is, they're here too…" (Wrath)

Having reached a mutual understanding, the two shared a sigh of disappointment, before starting to exchange names, pleasantries, and information.

"Then, those other three are as well?" (Tanya)

"No, Shiro-san and Sophia-san – the smaller one – are, but Ariel-san isn't. Our entire high school class was blown up some six years ago, but we're doing fine now. Ariel-san thought it'd be fun to push a random button, and here we ended up… what about this country? Are this Ainz-san and everybody the same?" (Wrath)

"Ainz is, yeah, but it's just him. The rest are what he called NPCs." (Tanya)

"Ah, so it's a game setting this time…" (Wrath)

"So I've heard, admittedly I'm not too familiar with the details. To begin with, I was originally a salaryman, then spent over a decade in another world entirely having to fight a magical world war." (Tanya)

"Salary_man_? Uh, what can I say, my condolences…" (Wrath)

"It's as you say… well, long story short, he offered some employment benefits I needed, so I ended up like this." (Tanya)

"I understand. Should we try meeting with Ainz-san, or would that be impossible?" (Wrath)

Tanya thought about it, mentally simulating the possible outcomes.

"I won't say it's entirely impossible, but… Ainz himself aside, the rest of the NPCs would lean towards getting rid of threats as soon as possible. This time, I was only here by coincidence, otherwise you might already have been attacked." (Tanya)

"That's a shame. Well, since Shiro-san hadn't already made contact, I figured there was a reason. Rather, didn't you recognize her when you flew in?" (Wrath)

"I found her once before, we ended up making a deal, but…" she fiddled with the ribbon on her chest, choosing her words carefully, "…she seemed much more enigmatic last time, the whole divine image is ruined now." (Tanya)

Wrath bowed deeply.

"I'm very sorry for our Shiro-san's behavior. She was drinking before we noticed, we failed to stop her." (Wrath)

Tanya smiled maliciously. "It's fine, I'll voice my complaints directly to the person in question… we're overdue some vital communication, it seems…" (Tanya)

"Do what you want, I didn't hear anything here." (Wrath)

"Yeah. And I didn't find anybody threatening here. It won't work a second time though, if you're planning on staying here, do it without picking up any half-ton monsters." (Tanya)

"I'll tell Ariel-san that… if you need us, we'll probably be killing time at the Adventurer's Guild." (Wrath)

"Sure. Things are still hectic with the war, but ask for me at the castle. Might take a few days to get back to you, though." (Tanya)

Even if she was only physically present one day in a month, there were always at least a couple magic casters who could send a message in an emergency. While it was doubtful whether they would ever actually need help from her, excluding the possibility of political issues they might get themselves caught up in. Offering this much was her insurance, on the off chance that a trivial conflict would otherwise turn into a world-ending fight between semi-gods.

Tearing away the last web, she stowed it for future use before starting to fill the gaps in with magic. The bar would forever have a vacant gap of unknown depth hidden beneath it, but some shifted dirt and imitation floorboards matching the appearance of the existing flooring meant nobody else had to know of its existence.

"Are we done here?" Wrath said, looking over the end result.

"Yeah, nothing happened here. Back to work." (Tanya)

She nodded and vanished without another word.

* * *

Tanya stepped into her room. Placing her hands on the dress, she tore, desperate to finally get herself out of it.

She tore, but the silk did not budge. Letting magic flow into her muscles, she tore again, yet the result did not change.

After a few more seconds of exerting herself until her arms were sore and her face was red, she gave up and let go.

"… How does somebody take this off…?"

The next hour was spent attempting to figure out how to undo the intricate process of putting on the monstrosity of a dress she had been made to wear.

"…"

She took a glove and tried to tear it in half. Not the slightest deformation.

She set the dress on her desk and stabbed a knife into it. The blade bounced off. Once again with mana applied, not a scratch.

"… Dammit. I can't think of an excuse not to wear this…"

* * *

**Side: Shiro**

I have discovered a serious issue. An earth-shattering flaw, one whose existence I have long since suspected, yet only now confirmed.

I… don't have enough firepower.

Now, I'll admit, dropping meteors is fun and all, but that much is just base-level endgame magic, the sort of thing any ordinary black mage can learn. That spell you teach your pets because they get unlimited uses. The evolved form of solving all of life's problem by throwing the bigger rock.

Sure, it's functional enough for flattening a colony of elves into that unrecognizable mush you can't show on TV without a mosaic, but having to wait for a rock to accelerate and impact just to squish a Robo-Potimas is… unfortunate.

Not very godlike, is it? Having the demon loli upstage you by adding an energy bomb to her meteor just for style points. I mean, you can already reach and sustain yourself in orbit, store items in an inventory, and drop them with pinpoint accuracy. Anywhere else you'd have terminal velocity and drag and all that to think about, but here you just drop rocks and watch cities transform into craters. Surely you've done the math?

Yet you go for the option of making up some advanced magecraft to use a small rock instead.

Aren't you just showing off!?

…

Okay, yes, obviously, there is also the option of just looking at something and just willing it to cease to freeze in space, or collapse internally, or lose all its energy and cease to exist, but… yep, it's too plain. Effective, but plain.

But then, the question becomes, what _does_ a spider's ultimate attack look like? Giant interdimensional webs? Atmospheric venom effects? Disintegration wave? DIY anti-god magic? A portal to the realm of unlimited spiders?

Argh, why aren't there more references to work from?

… Okay, pull back. Think about the Queens… Whether it's them or the dragons, it's got to be the trademark attack that destroys everything, Breath? The repeated trauma I got from it still hasn't faded, so something about it must be working.

Actually letting that out of my mouth is a little… no.

Though, I guess I don't have to? Let's try it out.

_A wild Ogre (x2) appeared!_

_ Ogre A uses __[I__ntimidating __R__oar__]__! It has no effect!_

_ Shiro-chan uses Summon: Pocket Mother!_

_ Mother appears from a tear in reality!_

_ Mother uses [Breath]!_

_ Ogre A receives 9999 damage! Ogre A is vaporized!_

_ Ogre B receives 9999 damage! Ogre B is vaporized!_

_ Mother's head returns into the tear in reality!_

_ Shiro-chan is victorious! Received 2 EXP!_

… I probably didn't need to narrate that. More than a few sources got mixed up there, but let's ignore that.

Pros: It certainly does work, both the ogres and the next kilometer of forest behind them have been thoroughly erased.

Cons: Insufficient Queens exist to scale up. Crossing worlds to bring one over each time is a pain, and Maou would probably get mad if I keep borrowing them without asking.

Okay, I should put her back where I found her.

Farewell, Queen #3, until we meet again.

…

Okay, enough of that.

The forest… I have no idea how the earth and trees were torn apart. Must have been like this to begin with, yes. Look the other direction, and it's an ordinary undamaged forest. Not my responsibility.

What's next? Should I play around with that super magic or what was it? … Nah, I can't think of a single good use for it. On top of being tied in too closely with this system to become practical, isn't it just ordinary high-tier magic with more restrictions? Pass. Too slow and weak to bother hacking the System. Unfortunate.

Summoning magic? Another fantasy trope, another pass. Everybody knows that spiders are better than zombies or skeletons. Plus, it's a pain to copy it in such a way that it'll work in worlds outside this one, not much point otherwise.

Dressing up in red and blue spandex and punching things? Hard, hard, hard pass. Whose idea was it to even call that a spider? What a waste of research.

Aside from those, the only thing that comes to mind is combing the world for any more of D's artifacts – the World Items or what was it – and picking out the useful ones. From the few I've seen, they aren't terribly different from the rest of the crap I got from our house, evil playing cards and one-shot baseball bats and all that.

If I had to guess, the ones left behind there are miscellaneous rejects, whereas the ones used for the game which exist in this world are the successes: a club with infinite power scaling, a temporary unlimited pool of magic, the idealized concept of a chain, a literal delete key… Some pretty unreasonable items, all things considered.

At least a couple of them would be a boon to own, and since they're each built around a small fragment of divinity, they should at least partially work outside any system.

Ideal in every way, really, but there probably aren't more than a dozen of them scattered around the world. The ones in the tomb… well, they aren't going anywhere. No need to steal them immediately, it'd just reveal my position and turn them all hostile. Yet.

Who else has them, then? The dragons? They probably have a couple hidden away, assuming I can find them to begin with.

Even D went out of her way to suggest hunting them, she rarely bothers to interfere that openly. Not sure how they managed to annoy her enough for that order to come down…

Oh well, what's important is that I'll finally get a chance to find out what ancient dragons taste like. Priorities, priorities.

Just have to watch out for the Dragon Emperor. Those miscellaneous lords are descended from a True Dragon, even if they only inherited tiny fragments of its original strength. In the worst case, there's another Gyuri here, one who I very much don't want to get involved with.

_Sigh._

…

Hm? Something's approaching?

I look up to the sky to watch a comet of magic slowly approaching.

Clarification: It's not slow, that's just perspective. Just how far away did that come from?

For the time being, let's just take a few steps in this direction.

No sooner had I done that than the ground behind me spectacularly exploded. Dirt, grass, rocks, and even trees were blown apart by the pressure from the blast.

Well, I don't want to get dirty, so let's just block all of that…

How could you!? This brazen destruction of nature, such shameless disregard for the forest, take responsibility!

Who is it? Who would be so rude as to start shooting at me? Don't think you can hide just because you're firing from space! I'll drag you back down here along with that very space!

From the exact opposite direction the shot came from, to the edge of the atmosphere, search for any magic responses.

There's only the one, all the way up, with nothing around. Convenient.

Dimensional magic, bring that region of space down to earth.

The displaced air collapses back into the region of vacuum I created with a sharp clap, at the center of which is… a dazed Demon Girl.

Okay, that's not much of a surprise. Not really anybody else it could be, but… why?

Watching her, she recovers surprisingly quickly for somebody unexpectedly thrown off by sudden teleportation. Haven't your lungs collapsed from the pressure change or something?

Now that I think about it, your choice of dress is rather… eccentric. Mahou Shoujo cosplay? Never thought you were the type… or wait, is that one of mine? Where'd she get that?

She looks up at me defiantly.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, _Shiro-san…_ why don't we have an overdue discussion?"

…?

Is she mad…? I wonder why.

Wait, how does she know my name…?

I feel like I'm forgetting something here… doubt it's anything too important.

So, why are you here? Can't you show me some interesting magic or something? You went and start a conversation with a warning shot, so it's fine if I reply in kind, right?

Based on the amount of magic power she's putting into her barriers and physical reinforcement… add the defensive value of pseudodragonscale layered with some of my silk (assumed), the force required would be… eh, forget the calculation, let's just leave it to instinct.

Step forward, and… Shiro-chan Punch.

Overwhelming force shatters her magic defenses in an instant, leaving a visible indent and at least a few broken ribs. Exactly half-dead, more or less. Perfect.

She flies off at a speed which draws a smooth line instead of a parabola, right through one large tree, then gets stuck halfway into another.

More reckless destruction of nature, how could you!

Leaves and splinters fly everywhere around her, half-embedded into a huge oak.

Well, that's an appropriate penalty for shooting me, even if you knew it wouldn't be effective. Others have gotten eaten for less, consider this my generosity.

Now, show me something interesting!

She collapsed forward out of the tree, half-conscious, and began to regenerate.

… Okay, fine, healing first is fine. Probably can't do anything else when half of your organs are in the wrong cavity.

Now, show me something interesting!

"[Greater-"

Nope to that. I'm not letting you just teleport away after all this. You chose to follow me here, now pay for it with a fight.

Crushing the magic invocation simply by washing over it to break the spell, I started walking forward. Slowly. Ominously.

If you don't do anything, I'll hit you again, you know?

From a few meters away, I drew back a first for a telegraphed right straight.

Before I could actually attack, she struck out, shooting once, diving to the side, then rapidly ascending.

The mana bullet I just caught in hand, letting it impact, just to see what it is, since the damage was negligible anyway.

As expected, it's basically just energy? You're not filtering it through the System as a spell, just operating MA Energy in tiny amounts.

I figured that's what it was, but actually getting confirmation is nonetheless amazing. It's a minuscule amount compared to what D's systems or even Potimas's machines use, but it's properly cycling it back to the world instead of burning it outright.

Does that technically make each and every one of her world's mages gods of the lowest tier? No wonder D would be interested, that's one hell of a war potential if you actually nurture them. That, or she just found the whole situation amusing. Let's be real, it's probably the latter.

Ah, got distracted. She's trying to fly away. I'll just lock everything within 200 meters down with some webbing and a barrier, though.

You can't escape from a boss battle, you know?

She suddenly hit the brakes and stopped with just a light impact against the barrier instead of splatting against it. After briefly assessing the situation, she backed up and started putting together all sorts of magic in parallel.

Yes, fight! I'll take you on in full challenge run fashion, no evil eyes, no summons, no webs, no offensive magic, no damage, and just 5% power. Hahaha!

Her opening move is… raining down explosives? The sound and vibration is pretty intense from the number, but each of them is weaker than even the first shot, so it's not as though they would do damage.

What's the point? A smokescreen? We both know Detection doesn't care about something like that. Clearing the trees? You've gotten rid of any cover, sure, but…

I sweep aside an incoming high-velocity bullet with the back of my hand.

… You need to throw more than pebbles if you want to do anything to a lake.

A few more rounds like the first, each perfectly aimed, but by the same token, taking only a light sidestep to avoid entirely. The last one I catch in a miniature portal, the output set up to send her attack straight back – which she narrowly avoids.

Come on, keep going, we've all seen bullets. Try something novel.

After that, she again starts scattering explosions, filling the entire arena with smoke and fire.

How is she fueling all that, anyway? Her energy levels have been really inconsistent this entire time, spiking to twice her regular limit each time she starts attacking, yet the amount she actually possesses barely changes.

I can tell that she's retrieving it from the System as some kind of seal but the numbers don't add up… or wait, I see it. She filled a seal with a whole bunch of pure, unassigned energy and told the System to just seal it as-is, pretending it's a spell. Basically the same trick as that crystal, just with more versatility in exchange for less total energy stored.

Interesting to watch, but not really useful for me, it's not possible for me to store anywhere near enough energy to be useful.

Oh, well.

I put a little bit of magic into my hand, swiping it to clear the air, letting just smoke filter through the barriers and dissipate.

Well, by now, everything within 200 meters of where I'm standing has been cleared out, it's basically just bombed-out dirt all around.

Looking up at the flying little girl- oh? Ohoho?

I teleport straight up in front of it, grabbing it to take a closer look.

This really is quite something, one of those 'decoys', but you've taken it to a new level, haven't you? Giving it mass, radiating energy of its own, imitation body heat, even going so far as to program in some independent movement so it can attack, or struggle, as in this case.

I honestly didn't notice when you switched them out, with the distraction in play.

Can you even still call this a decoy? Some kind of mana golem? You've invented something insane, oi.

As for the real one… she was invisible and charging towards me from the side.

… You do know that I can still see you, right? I mean, you're kinda fast, but Maou can just kick off the ground at twice that speed, so it's not too exciting.

I suppose this is enough entertainment for now, let's just end this.

Turning around slightly to look over at her, I look at her just as she's about to make contact, freezing her in the air.

… Or at least, that's how it was supposed to go?

I'm holding the tip of a sword between two fingers, right above the center of my chest.

Again, that's not quite right.

Down the tip rolls a single drop of crimson, a point of blood sliding down the edge a few centimeters before breaking off, falling straight to the ground below.

To be precise, I am indeed holding the sword, but I failed to quite catch it in time.

Let's back up a little, what happened?

She was moving here at full speed, and I stopped her a couple meters away. That definitely happened, but at that exact time, a sword came out of nowhere, still flying at full speed straight towards me.

I didn't notice her activating anything to create or shoot it… how?

Let's take a good look at the sword – it did cut through my clothing, after all. It's not something I would have overlooked if she was just hiding it, yet it just came out in that instant. If she had any other items… ah.

Again, such a simple trick?

I stuck a hand forward, reaching into the attached space – her inventory, assigned by the System. Not too difficult to tear open when you know what you're doing. It's a linked space, tied to move alongside the owner so they can conveniently pull items while moving.

Did she have the inventory open, the sword ready to fly out as soon as she was frozen? Seriously impressive timing, damn.

_Shiro-chan __receives __1 __damage!_

So much for a no-damage run… this is humiliating…

It's at times like this that you use those magic words to pretend you didn't lose.

"… You pass."

"Huh? What?"

I can make use of you, right? You did say you were working for the highest bidder, didn't you?

"… New orders, find the Dragon Lords."

Confused look.

"… You will receive payment, Elementary Dimensional Magic."

I have an inventory too, you know. I reach in for a can of coffee and place it in her hand.

Yes, you understand what that means, don't you?

What you truly want, only I can sell you…

Now then, Undead is calling you for a meeting, you should get back soon.

Let's get out of here before the conversation continues.

One more job successfully pawned off.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

So concludes another volume. Continued on a whim, honestly surprised this finished in a (relatively) timely manner.

Yes, a third volume is in planning. However, it will most likely be delayed by at least a month from the "regular" releases. Prologues might need to get rewritten repeatedly to fit with the first chapter, and I'd rather not lock anything in until I'm satisfied with the entire first chapter.

In other news, I'm opening a small discord server if you want to point out errors, complain about issues, or just get spoiled about the direction of the story. Invite code is at WZr7tET, don't be surprised if you find it empty.


	17. Volume 3: Legacy of the Undead: Prologue

**Volume 3**

**Legacy of the Undead**

**Prologue**

**Part 1**

A colossal golden eye blinked heavily, followed by the proportionately massive head rising to look towards an archway to his side.

Behind it hid a teleportation formation, keyed to only accept a handful of individuals, yet it now began to glow a vivid white. He watched with interest, still uncertain as to its exact identity as the figure solidified into something identifiable.

The eye widens once as he first recognizes the form, before narrowing in suspicion.

"… Yours is certainly an unexpected visit. Are you still here as a companion, or…"

His deep, heavy voice echoed around the room, trailing off into an unstated threat as he stood up to face the girl.

"As if I would be stupid enough to come here if I weren't. It has been a while, Tsar."

Her reply was clear and confident, light and joking. Though facing a dragon twenty times her height, she walked forward without caring, evidently not expecting any follow-through to his words.

"Yes, so it has, Inberun. Forty years, was it?" (Tsar)

"Forty-three. Have you been asleep so long that you lost count?" (Keeno)

"Haha, that may be." (Tsar)

The dragon's throaty laugh resonated throughout the chamber.

"At least until you three interrupt my rest." (Tsar)

"I didn't think you'd get old, but it seems I was wrong. Who else has time to come all the way out here, anyway? Granny I can understand, but who's the third?" (Keeno)

"Azuth. You know him as well, don't you?" (Tsar)

"Ah. That man, huh? While he is capable of traveling out here, I have to wonder why you still associate with him…" (Keeno)

"Reliable collaborators – or even just useful ones – are few and far between…" (Tsar)

Tsar paused and breathed out a derisive snort after his sentence before continuing.

"… Besides, if we are to speak of associates, are you one to say anything, Inberun? You went and lost your mask, are you going by Keeno now?" (Tsar)

"Stop it, you old bastard, hearing that from you is just creepy. What do you care who I do business with, demons or otherwise?" (Keeno)

"Were it truly simple business I would not, however when you go so far as to war against the Theocracy, it leads me to question your allegiance." (Tsar)

She shrugged back. "Not like anybody liked them. I'd wager you were there to observe those battles, and didn't even bother to interfere to save them." (Keeno)

"I won't deny it… my presence there would have caused no end of issues were I to be revealed." (Tsar)

"Is that so? At the time I thought you might step in, even if you do hate them, but I suppose there's no need to interfere with your enemies killing each other off?" (Keeno)

"Indeed…" Tsar gave a solemn nod. "I was prepared to see much of that city sacrificed if that was what it cost to see how far the Sorcerer King would be willing to go." (Tsar)

"Undead or not, they understand full well the repercussions of destroying entire cities of civilians." (Keeno)

"… I wonder about that. For all we know it was simply your demon's prudence, or a whim to spare the city. Her using that spell, the Sorcerer King's arrival, and their sudden withdrawal, it feels as though we are missing a critical piece to this entire puzzle." (Tsar)

Keeno listened with interest.

"You knew about that magic? Just what was that? I've never heard of an individual spending over an hour to use one spell, was that perhaps something like the Theocracy's ritual magic, used to reach the 10th tier?" (Keeno)

"No, 10th tier magic is powerful, but nowhere near so grandiose. What the demon used was something different entirely, something the Players call 'Super-tier Magic'… no, that is not correct either." (Tsar)

He paused to think, trying to organize the history he knew with the facts he heard into a cohesive theory.

"To be precise, the spell the Sorcerer King used against the Kingdom's army should be Super-tier Magic. Though that precise magic is not one I had seen before, the accounts of that battle are close enough to my memories of the Six Gods and Eight Greed Kings' magic for me to say this with near certainty…" (Tsar)

Again he trailed off, carefully considering his conclusion before speaking.

"… but that was always cast within a few minutes, no longer. Never an hour, certainly. The appearance is eerily similar, too, so if forced to say, I would call it degenerated Super-tier Magic." (Tsar)

"Hm… and here I was being proud of finally reaching the 6th tier… to think there was so much more depth to master." (Keeno)

"Hoh, so you did? That is certainly worthy of congratulation. Few beings ever reach that level by their own power, even if you include elder beings such as dragons. Alas, sorry to break it to you, but Super-tier Magic is something exclusive to Players, not something another can ever learn. Not even we Dragon Lords were ever successful in emulating it, no matter what we tried." (Tsar)

"Is that really the case, though? According to the person in question, she really was a human before becoming a demon, not a Player. Doesn't that mean she did what you couldn't?" (Keeno)

Keeno tried to question Tsar's conclusion, but he simply shook his head.

"That simply isn't possible. Back in the day, Elim and I spent decades trying to understand the magic of the original Six Gods, yet we failed to so much as make progress. Her doing so in a couple years is ridiculous, compared to the simple explanation that you were lied to. As well, going by what the Leader said, there were occasionally children who could lead guilds in YGGDRASIL, the possibility is there. Yes, that demon should be a Player from the Sorcerer King's guild." (Tsar)

"If you say so…" (Keeno)

To her, it seemed there were at least a couple holes in his logic, but there wasn't much to gain by arguing with him over a topic he knew so much more about than her. She had certainly spoken to the Leader a good deal as well, but the topic of Players rarely came up.

In that party, everybody had their own secrets to keep. Nobody wished to be the one causing discord by digging into others' pasts.

On the other hand, he probably spoke at least a little to the various Players around the world over the centuries. It was obvious which of them had a better understanding of the mysterious race. Even still, his reasoning didn't sound quite right to her.

"… This is troubling. All our assumptions up until now were based on a single Player this century, not two. Every plan from start to finish will need to be revised." (Tsar)

"Oh? Is that why you started taking out old threats?" (Keeno)

When she tried to change the subject, he simply looked confused.

"What are you referring to? Did Rigrit mention something?" (Tsar)

"Yeah, long ago, I heard the history from her. You hated him, he threatened you, even back then you were on the verge of starting a fight. But really, destroying half the entire city just to get back at him?" (Keeno)

"Hm, wait, Elves? What is this about?" (Tsar)

"Don't deny it. I flew over and saw the crater myself, it's pretty obvious, and all the elves know it too. Nobody else could possibly have caused that much damage with one attack. You took it too far…" (Keeno)

"Stop, stop, stop! Inberun, what are you talking about? Start from the beginning!"

Tsar charged forward, shouting, causing Keeno to inadvertently back up several steps in response.

"No, like I said, there's no point playing dumb. The very same Elf King you always fought against, who next to nobody still living has spoken to, just happens to get killed exactly when you start thinking of the Sorcerous Kingdom as a threat? Is there anybody else would bother with somebody like that?" (Keeno)

As she explained, he stopped, stunned.

"… Ridiculous. I have done no such thing. Who would believe such nonsense?" (Tsar)

"An entire species already does, and they're spreading the story. Unless you have a better explanation?" (Keeno)

"Considering the timing, it must be the Sorcerous Kingdom, beyond a doubt. There should exist powerful items from YGGDRASIL beyond our knowledge, with enough power to match anything I could perform." (Tsar)

"So, it was done by a country which has no contact with the elf kingdom, by one of two individuals a country or two away, using an item which only exists as long as you imagine it to be convenient… I'm afraid I will have to go with the simple explanation that you are responsible, as will the warring elves marching towards you, I suspect." (Keeno)

"… Are you serious?" (Tsar)

"Completely. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Council consider revoking your seat once the news reaches them." (Keeno)

Hearing those words from Keeno was enough to make Tsar freeze in place, shocked at the level of distrust he had not expected to hear.

"… Hmph. So no matter how many centuries I spent as their guardian, still they would jump at the first opportunity to see me dethroned?" (Tsar)

"Well, if you take care of any threats before they appear, then to the people you're indistinguishable from a worthless statue. All the power you might have is worse than useless when they only see you as unstable." (Keeno)

Tsar laughed back.

"That was unexpected. I hadn't taken you as a student of philosophy… or anything unrelated to magic, really." (Tsar)

"You're meant to say that as being 'dedicated to one's specialty', you inconsiderate suit of armor." (Keeno)

Keeno shot back with her own mockery, despite not denying the meaning behind his claim.

Grudges of the past did not disappear merely with the passage of a few decades.

"-But really, the opportunity to discuss philosophy with a demon is rare enough, did you think I would miss it?" (Keeno)

"No, I don't suppose you would. Our Leader, too, always had some interesting ideas about the world. Nonetheless, getting involved with them any more than you already have is exceedingly dangerous. When the time comes, would you be able to fight them once again?" (Tsar)

"Fight against them? Forget about it." (Keeno)

"Even you? So the trust of companions only goes so far…" (Tsar)

"Trust won't help anybody jump into an active volcano. Let alone just one of those two, include Momon-sama or Albedo and I'm not convinced you could win. Just leave it alone." (Keeno)

"Unfortunately, it is clear enough that they are evil in nature. Sooner or later, they will bring harm to this world, and then, our conflict is inevitable." (Tsar)

"Then deal with it yourself. Call it the Balance of the World or what you want, it's not my concern." (Keeno)

She turned around and started walking back towards the archway from where she had entered. Hearing Tsar's stubbornness was disappointing, but hardly unexpected.

"You reap the benefits yet disappear as soon as you're needed. Did you come with no intention of assisting, or even negotiating?" (Tsar)

Tsar called after her, his voice sinking to a low growl.

"You want to negotiate? Fine, get me the Nameless Spellbook and I'll consider it." (Keeno)

Yelling this back, Keeno continued to walk without stopping.

Obviously, she was not making a serious offer. It was doubtless possible for somebody with his nature to retrieve the spellbook, yet he had refused to do so on multiple occasions in the past. Its power beyond mortal comprehension, there wasn't the slightest chance he would risk releasing it into the open world, no matter how much he might have trusted her.

"Foolish. Those items are beyond what any single being can handle, whether you or the Sorcerer King. Simply possessing one is enough to distort the laws of the universe." (Tsar)

"So you say, and there's your answer. Get yourself killed if you must, leave me out of it." (Keeno)

"Wait." (Tsar)

Now nearly past the boundary and out of the room, she paused and glanced back.

"Do you still need something?" (Keeno)

"In the Kingdom, there should have been a ring and a sword of some value. I'm sure you know to which I am referring. Where are they now?" (Tsar)

"The Princess surrendered the sword over to the Sorcerous Kingdom, I haven't followed it after that. As for the ring… she probably still has it, but hell if I know where she is hiding out now." (Keeno)

"… I see. A loss, but not the worst possible outcome." (Tsar)

"What does it matter? It's just a sword, I'm sure they have their own equipment already without needing to loot it from elsewhere." (Keeno)

"There exist a number of unique relics, created using magic which has since been twisted beyond recreation… but, so long as their true worth is unknown, they should remain harmless… very well, forget I ever mentioned the topic…" (Tsar)

Although his musing continued after that, Keeno saw no further use listening to him rambling. Since staying near him any further would only make it more likely for him to try forcing some unreasonable demand onto her, she instead chose to simply walk out.

The very same flash of teleportation magic which signaled her arrival, now once again marked her departure from the chamber.

"… I will recover them myself, before long." (Tsar)

His last sentence finished only after she had vacated the room.

He took the chance to stand up straight, stretching out his vast wings to their full, majestic span, reflecting light throughout the room in a haphazard manner.

As he did this, he began to speak again.

"What do you make of her now, Azuth?" (Tsar)

The crimson form of the armor appeared behind him, having dispelled the high-level invisibility spell stored in the suit.

"Let's leave her be. Trying to convince that girl over isn't going to be possible, but as long as she wants to play at neutrality, let's let her. Her choice won't matter in the long run." (Azuth)

"How unexpectedly cordial, coming from you." (Tsar)

"I hadn't expected you to be the type to shelter undead, though now I see that I should have put two and two together. Either way, I can put her off until later, now is not the time for making more enemies." (Azuth)

"I had a similar thought, but was concerned that they were tainted by my memories of the past. Besides, the confidence she has in her trump-card is genuine. Were she to accept abandoning her own life to strike at us, even I might be injured… but again, this is besides the point. Did you hear where they will go from here?" (Tsar)

"Of course I have. Though it's just something I overheard, they're going to be sending some kind of expedition south, across the desert. If they're nice enough to split off their forces to let us hunt them, who are we to turn down their offer? Getting the undead boss himself can wait until after that, and the rest will scatter once the head is gone." (Azuth)

"Haha, it's always useful to have you keeping an eye out on them. Let's hear about this expedition, shall we…?" (Tsar)

* * *

**Part 2**

"Demiurge-sama, could we please just not do this?" (Tanya)

Tanya was forced to repeat this one line, which gave her an acute sense of deja-vu, though it occurred to her that since she had in fact been placed in the same situation once before.

Certainly, the individuals involved in the experimentation had all been switched around, but the end result was an eerily similar position. This time, instead of the certifiably insane mad scientist doctor, it was the demonically rational – or so she had believed – Demiurge who was giving her the lines she least wanted to hear.

"Every mechanism is complete. You, Pandora's Actor, and I have each independently verified the theoretical solution will work. So, why do you continue to object against putting it to use in a practical experiment?"

"You just explained the reason yourself, these are theoretical solutions, _theoretical_. The computation orb is a spare which hasn't received proper maintenance in months. The initialization machines are untested, makeshift engines hacked together from memory. The would-be user only received a rough memory transfer of the operations manual, instead of _two years_ of training, minimum. We've piled up instability upon instability upon instability, and you question why I'm concerned with a lack of stability?" (Tanya)

"-Therefore success would require absolute perfect control, I am well aware. There is no issue. Do you seriously believe that one created by the most precise of the Supreme Beings would fail such a simple task?" (Demiurge)

His continued assurance made Tanya want to cry out. He may as well have been preaching the name of Being X, so certain were the NPCs of Nazarick in their creators that being precise enough to thread a sewing needle using a container crane was automatically assumed to be within their capabilities.

With that having been said, his assurance was nothing like Schugel's, coming in out of nowhere to ruin her day. Given the superhuman results they were capable of producing, it might even be more reasonable to consider his extreme confidence to be justified, her caution needless paranoia.

Demiurge had, after all, been created to serve as a defensive commander, and accordingly should possess a vastly more accurate understanding of each member's abilities than her own subjective knowledge of the matter.

If he was willing to assert that this perfection was achievable, then perhaps that conclusion could be trusted. The experimental subject given the responsibility of achieving perfection in this case was not actually her, but rather the automaton, CZ Delta, who had – theoretically – received all the technical expertise necessary – delivered by her literally providing the required memories using repeated applications of [Control Amnesia].

Assuming that training had stuck, she was reasonably confident in the assertion that CZ was more than capable of performing the complex calculations required to use a computation orb, likely even better than she could at the time. Adding to that, while using one was by no means simple, even a poorly maintained Type-97 was markedly more stable than Schugel's eternally defective Type-95.

Back then, she may have only succeeded in stabilizing the orb because of Being X's interference, but that wasn't to say somebody more capable than her couldn't possibly succeed. According to their calculations, the theoretical specs of the dual-core Type-97 are just _barely_ sufficient to perform mana fixation and materialize actual magic – though the margin of error was so small that success might well be more difficult than with the damned Type-95.

On the other hand, the energy levels they were playing around with were only slightly less than the time the mad scientist had forced her into the trap of an experiment, easily more than enough to flatten their testing grounds were anything to go wrong – and given that the majority of their precision machinery was handcrafted and makeshift, she would be hard-pressed to come up with an even more obvious way to tempt Murphy.

Tanya already knew from experience than were Murphy to be sufficiently angered, his law would be enforced, more surely and swiftly than any other law, be it mortal or divine, quite possibly taking the form of immediate vaporization if her defenses proved lacking.

Admittedly, she would likely object to proceeding with the experiment even in ideal circumstances, knowing the risks involved, plus the fact that she would not personally benefit from its success. No matter how much an expert might assure her that a landmine was inert, she wouldn't want to be the one to test their assertion, certainly not for minimum wage.

Unfortunately, the terms of her continued employment didn't exactly offer her much room to refuse to continue, not unless she could refute Demiurge's assertion by demonstrating the task to be impossible, itself a devil's proof unless the experiment were to be run first.

Basically, she could either proceed with trying to guide CZ through activating the orb and hope it didn't end with them collectively being blown up along with half of the 8th floor of the tomb, or she could abandon Nazarick, flee, and try to escape to somewhere safe on her own. Technically an option available to her, though not a particularly good one. No, this wasn't her hill to die on.

With so many other unreasonable orders, it was more a question of how to let it fail while avoiding responsibility than trying to somehow mold the impossible into a passable success. However, right now she was to take part in what was supposed to fit within her specialization.

Worse, her spare Type-97 was one-of-a-kind, meaning that a single catastrophic failure would immediately mark the end of their efforts, turning the previous month into nothing more than sunk cost. Were that to happen, Demiurge would almost certainly insist on collective responsibility for the failure, a black mark for each of them, instead of allowing any one of them to escape their share of the blame.

Even still, the looming possibility of death was generally enough to outweigh any other demerit she might be threatened with. For so long as the ability to resurrect Players is not empirically demonstrated to be possible, she must continue to assume death is truly final – and even that is working under the questionable assumption that her irregular arrival into this world qualifies her as one.

She should logically commit fully to the experiment in order to give it the best odds of success, yet she should also logically withdraw from the experiment in the event of an accident to preserve her own life.

The contradiction of motivation continued to repeat in Tanya's mind, jumping from one conclusion to the other even as she tried to maintain a straight face in front of Demiurge. Though more likely than not, his presence here was enough indication that he already understood her thought process.

Somehow, the devil had the uncanny ability to always know exactly whenever her interests started to deviate even slightly from the greater good of Nazarick, and would immediately appear to 'encourage' her to correct her actions without the need to say a word.

Still suppressing her sigh, she spoke up after a brief delay.

"… I wouldn't move forward without a contingency plan even if your creator personally came down to help." (Tanya)

"Surely you of all people could keep the situation under control." (Demiurge)

Despite having the most reactive of all managers, there was usually far less danger to the job, compared to even the most mundane of military assignments. Even now, for all her mental complaining, the task was still safer than last time, since this time, she was not the one with a bomb strapped to her in the name of science, merely an observer.

First it had been mere calculations, then research and development, eventually training, and finally the actual mana fixation experiment. Her objective had gradually been shifted towards the difficult and dangerous, yet even after she had noticed where the task would inevitably be going, enough was already invested that her complaining over minor increments would have made her the unreasonable one.

For as much as she might strive to be the sort of leader who can pull the most value out of the human capital available to her, actually working under a manager capable of doing so left her feeling like she was being pressed into a corner with every passing day.

At the end of the day, she had only one meaningful choice as long as it remained in her best interest to ever advance her position. She relented, the pent-up sigh slipping out as she accepted the inevitable.

"Understood. Then, if you are aware of the risks involved, there is no point to delaying further. Begin final systems check." (Tanya)

Tanya called out, though of course Demiurge himself didn't move. He was only here to observe, not to act as her assistant.

Instead she took a step forward to personally look over the control equipment. She tried looking for the slightest imperfection, the smallest defect, even a single grain of dust out of place she might be able to find issue with, but everything was in order.

Though the machine had been set up outside in the middle of a vast clearing, not a single speck of dirt or sand had blown onto it. For the past week, the entire floor's weather had been adjusted to her specifications – her request, which she had made assuming it would be unreasonable, thinking that the non-ideal conditions could excuse cancelling the entire project – yet now the air was that of a cleanroom, the very wind suspended until further notice.

Of course, such was the power of the guildmaster in his own base. There wasn't the slightest issue even after several days of exposure which she might point to, ruining any chance she might have had to delay further.

Though in reality, if the Americans wouldn't listen to their own engineers' warnings to delay a doomed space shuttle launch, any petty flaws she might bring up were unlikely to get any traction.

Looking up over to CZ, she nodded to confirm her own preparation.

"… No issues. Ready for connection." (CZ)

The slight hope that her old orb might have acquired some critical fault over the years, but of course, Schugel's engineering chose _now_ of all times to work reliably. With that observation, her last hope of backing out vanished like smoke.

This was the point of no return.

"Initializing secondary mana supply." (Tanya)

Tanya pushed the proverbial big red button to begin piping power through to the orb. She had spent a considerable amount of time filling it with hundreds of shards of solidified mana herself, each of which could power a common artillery formula if released explosively. In total, the sum of energy available would be more than enough to succeed even without the cheat of the Type-95 – theoretically.

"… Supplying mana." (CZ)

Immediately, the small computation orb in CZ's hand expelled a bright flash.

The simple fact that it did not burst into flames or explode immediately was a good start. It was after all necessary to feed energy into the orb with nearly twice the rated bandwidth limit, bypassing several safety gates in the process.

Once the mana fixation succeeded once, doing so again with the same cores would be infinitely easier from the second time onward. Like crystals growing off a sliver of a seed, mana liked mana.

Of course, that initial success required a miracle-

"… Energy at 142% nominal. All cores stable." (CZ)

-And surprisingly, she really was reaching the needed value without losing stability, even if only by a few percent above the theoretical minimum.

For a second, the possibility that this might actually work wormed its way into Tanya's head.

Just because it didn't work as the unwilling collaborative work of a little girl and a mad scientist, didn't necessarily mean a similar problem couldn't be solved by an automaton plus a couple demons.

"… Coupled resonance growing out of control. Losing stability." (CZ)

Unfortunately, that delusion really did only last for a few moments.

The flow of mana merging into the orb quickly grew both more potent and violent.

Looking from the outside, Tanya was able to watch serenely as the mana radiating into the air slowly devolved into a maelstrom of leaking energy. She at least had the freedom to watch it in fine detail, the skills available to her already twisting her perception of time into a perpetual adrenaline-high-like dilation.

She calmly considered the cause for the sudden breakdown, the mismatch between the mana signature imprinted from the years she had used the orb, and the ones from CZ, who was currently trying to force into it.

In hindsight, it was an obvious issue. Mages getting used to their personal orb – and conversely hating to use another mage's orb – did not do so out of mere superstition. Like a rough stone eroded by a stream, the jewel core itself would gradually be worn down into a form best fitting that mage's individual mana signature.

Normally this was a nuisance at worst, but since they were currently working with an abnormally large pool of energy, it had evidently become a crippling issue, introducing chaos into the fine mana streams, tearing apart the core in the process.

There was a beauty to the discord as the leaking magic exhibited a perfect interference pattern.

With the pattern clearly visible, it might even be possible to invert the result and stabilize it by adding her own destructive interference, but accurately doing so would cost her a couple minutes.

From the exponentially growing amplitude, the orb would last a few seconds at most before the now-inevitable disaster.

Cruel as it may be to the other two, it was necessary for Tanya to prioritize her own protection.

Even if it was disappointing to learn the solution, only for it to be ever so slightly out of reach.

_No, if time is the only missing piece-_

Instantly, she sunk the world into a still, quiet gray with a [Silent Time Stop].

Though there was a corresponding cost in magic, just the couple seconds that speaking the incantation would require were too precious to waste.

"What are you planning on doing now…?" (Demiurge)

Demiurge, unaffected by her time manipulation on account of his skills, muttered a question, but found himself ignored. It was rude, Tanya knew, but if she didn't have time to waste on incantations, neither did she have the time for pleasantries.

Disregarding her surroundings, Tanya leapt forward and set to work on correcting the instability.

It was much like forging a mana signature for covert operations, albeit three orders of magnitude more precise.

Just as predicted, the half-minute offered by stopping time with magic was nowhere near enough to finish.

"Single Magic Seal, Release."

A couple seconds before running out, she commanded a marge magic circle to appear, which formed and disappeared without any visible effect.

To one capable of visualizing the distribution of mana in space, nothing could be further from the truth. From the apparently inept magic circle, a vast pool of magic flowed out, ready for her use.

Where the Spell-Sealing Crystal was allowed to store any spell, up to and including extremely expensive resurrection magic, magic seals were only permitted to store regular attack magic, and had an appropriately smaller capacity. Despite that distinction, the same trick could be applied to either.

Though the volume of mana stored was indeed much smaller, it had the advantage of being far more easily malleable, on account of the energy not being stored with a density that caused it to collapse and explode the very instant it was set free.

Adding the fact that even the smaller amount of magic which a single seal could store was comparable to the entirety of her own mana pool, it was a useful trick to add to her growing arsenal. Though, looking at it objectively, her entire pool plus the full three seals were still less that half of Ainz's base MP. Such was the nature of levels.

In the few moments before time ran out and resumed, Tanya formed the cloud of loose magic into a new formula. Then, only a fraction of a second after time began to flow, she froze it again. CZ was barely given a chance to move a few millimeters as Tanya bought herself more time.

Precise as the timing may be, it was nothing to the girl with a magic computer embedded into her head. However, even if somebody like Ainz could perfectly delay his own casting, it would still not be possible for him to reproduce this. After all, a spell would have a recast time, and [Time Stop] was certainly no exception.

It was only by exploiting yet another vulnerability in the magic system – a duplicate formula simply not being recognized as cast by her – that she was able to repeatedly cast the same magic. So numerous were the issues in the YGGDRASIL system in this world, as Ainz called it, that Tanya had to wonder whether they were left in intentionally, but that was neither here nor there.

Most surprised of all was Demiurge, who watched, wide-eyed, as she effortlessly violated what he considered to be a fundamental law of magic.

All the while, she continued to devote her focus exclusively on the formula she had been weaving, taking no note of Demiurge as she revealed what had until then been an ability kept under wraps as an emergency measure.

Yet, he said nothing and only continued to observe. If she was so absorbed in magic that she forgot about his presence and revealed one of her hidden cards, there was nothing for him to ask here. It was a topic which passed beyond his own responsibility, an issue which he would need to bring up directly with Ainz.

She promptly got back to working on the orb, yet the time available to her felt irritatingly short. With even the slightest misalignment potentially resonating until it led to a collapse, there was no room for error, but more haste often made for less speed.

So she repeated the process with a second seal.

Then a third.

Each passing second brought her closer and closer to completion, yet as the last of her time ticked away, it became increasingly clear that the end would remain only barely out of her reach.

With her stored seals exhausted, stopping time a fifth time would completely exhaust her own internal mana, to the point where let alone shielding herself against an explosion at point-blank range, even escaping to a safe distance with short-range teleportation would no longer be possible.

It was far too risky a prospect to consider betting her life on nothing further going wrong.

Except, she hesitated.

_When did I start trying so hard to escape doing work?_

For the fifth time, she drew the magic formula, this time draining the required magic power from her own cells. Once again, the world returned to gray.

In doing so, exhaustion immediately washing over her, the magic already invested into her formula plus the spell she had just cast bringing her nearly to depletion.

Still, she continued working, ever so close to finishing successfully.

Second after precious passing second.

Even as the pain from overdrawing her magic set in, when her remaining time could be counted with just the fingers on her two hands, she continued meticulously etching away, to smooth out the thousandth of a percent error which nonetheless fell outside her tolerance.

It was remarkably convenient then, that her day job up until then had prepared her for working under extreme pressure as well as it had, lest she freeze up at the realization that her current job performance may have fatal repercussions within the next few seconds.

And then, it clicked.

Her finished formula, aligned to the exact inverse of the distortion, without the slightest imperfection. She was even left with a couple seconds to check and admire her work.

When next time returned to the world, she cast her enchantment onto the computation orb, before promptly collapsing to her knees.

Like a project which had forgotten its allotted budget, she had shot right past exhausting the mana available to her and began sucking it straight out of her cells.

She was left feeling like her breath had been taken away from a long sprint, then continued to suffocate, unable to relieve her burden.

Despite all that, the unmitigated pain somehow felt better than the alternative, the mental corruption and strange fervor from Being X's curse on her old Type-95.

Tanya took in a deep breath, then let it out. Even if her body no longer required respiration for survival, the old habit survived, and still helped to wind down from the tension. She watched the chaotic mess dissipate, with smooth, harmonic waves taking their place.

"-Even I can do this much, you worthless self-proclaimed god." (Tanya)

Even if it had left her completely empty, she had succeeded.

Even if they were working with a more refined orb with two cores instead of four, they had succeeded.

"… Nn, thank you." (CZ)

CZ, for her part, picked up on the change and used it to correct her course immediately.

Meanwhile, Demiurge simply nodded with an inscrutable smile.

"So you can see, a flawless success." (Demiurge)

Tanya let out a painful chuckle.

The calculated certainty with which he made his assertion was somehow no less irritating than hearing the same assertion from Schugel, no matter how different the basis for their confidence might have been.

As if her ability to save the situation was within his estimation.

As if her choice to not flee had already been predicted.

Frustratingly, the conclusion proved his correctness.

For the sake of form, Tanya appended his name to the long list of people deserving of a punch, but that could wait until she was in a proper state.

The combat maid as well would need training and experience to properly calibrate for the differences between the memories of its function planted into her, and the real version, but for the moment, it did not seem like the role of instructor would fall to Tanya.

In other words, the list of tasks officially assigned to her had been exhausted, for now at least. Just as long as she moved outside messaging range before another could be provided. Based on Demiurge's gaze, that would be better sooner than later.

Her leave had been approved.

* * *

**Part 3**

The fifth floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick: The Glacier.

Coating every square meter of the ground was brilliant white snow, shining from the reflection of the artificial sun in the ceiling, which would concentrate light to the point of becoming nearly blinding, yet did so without carrying any heat at all.

Scattered around them were titanic blue crystals of magical ice, so pure that they were nearly transparent, except for the slight fog which would slightly refract the scenery behind them, altogether creating a mythical environment.

It made for an incredible, picturesque scene of blue and white, for those few who could watch it without their very eyeballs freezing over from the frigid blizzard permanently covering the terrain.

For Tanya, this meant that despite receiving bonuses to elemental cold resistance from a couple pieces of her equipment, on top of her weak racial resistance, she could still clearly feel the sharp prickling of winter against her skin.

Thankfully, it was only to the extent of mild irritation, and could be entirely negated with the same sort of formula commonly used by mages managing their body temperature for high-altitude flight.

Simply by breathing out, the moisture would instantly crystallize even before it passed fully out of her mouth. Winter in the Federation may have been cold, but it certainly couldn't begin to compare to this magically-induced chill, which easily trumped even the coldest antarctic frost.

For the moment, she was neither on the clock working, nor in a particular rush, so she was more than willing to take the scenic route through the skies, slowly drifting around to take in the scenery created by Ainz's environmentally-minded colleagues.

Tanya had never understood the reason people would invest so many hundreds of hours over a number of years into perfecting how one appears in a game, disjoint from anything which might help advance one's position in life.

Maybe they found satisfaction in sharing their work like artists in any other medium… or perhaps the future they had lived in was simply so devoid of creative opportunities in work and instead flocked to games which did provide them. Having only heard a little from Ainz about his guildmates – and the sort of reality they had lived in – she had insufficient information to speculate about their motivations.

In spite of that, the end result of their work which she saw before her was undeniably impressive. Whether it was the detail of the environment in each level, or the depth of each NPC's personal character, actually seeing it expressed in reality would leave an impression any anybody who witnessed it, not just the artists themselves.

Once again, Tanya found herself grateful to possess the ability of flight. While much of the wonder had been lost due to several years of wartime mentally linking flying to being shot at, having the freedom to simply fly and admire sights like this brought a bit of color back to her view on the subject.

It was no small wonder then, that flight had been a shared dream of humanity for millennia. The beauty of nature – or an artificial vista, in this case – somehow seemed much more incredible from above.

However, her primary purpose in coming to this floor was not sightseeing.

She approached the large building at the center of the floor, the fortress of stone and ice – The Frozen Prison – before touching down a short distance from its main entrance.

Her feet stopped on the hard snow, which neither cracked nor sunk despite her landing being on the rougher side, as if stone or concrete rather than the fluffy carpet it looked to be from above.

A number of beings made the fifth floor their residence.

There was of course the master of the floor, Cocytus, from whom she had on occasion learned a bit about how to properly make use of a sword or spear. He was more than willing to offer his aid when asked and time permitted, though almost immediately followed up by recognizing that she had little in the way of talent for those weapons.

In essence, it would require prohibitive amount of training to get her to a level of skill where proper technique would be more effective than simple magic-enhanced brute force as she had been using up to that point. As such, the study which began with one session ended on that very same day.

Next in the order of the 5th floor's residents would be be Nigredo, with whom Tanya similarly did not want to meet.

The first time the two were introduced, Tanya's utter lack of reaction both surprised and disappointed Ainz, who had been hoping to see her share his own reaction the first time he had seen the character, that is to say one of abject horror.

She, with a tinge of sadness, quietly replied by pointing out that Nigredo was neither the first person she had seen left without their face, nor even the most visceral.

Shock and horror had long since lost any meaning to her.

Despite appearances, it was the woman's personality which made her hard to interact with. She seemed to skip between caring and scaring with a moment's notice, both appealing to her humanity and condemning her for her excessive killing.

In the end, she felt that it was in her own best interest that they simply not meet again.

Finally, there was the third named NPC to make their primary residence on the fifth floor, Neuronist.

For reasons completely opposite to Nigredo, meeting her just once was more than enough.

As Tanya saw it, there would have been a time and a place for a specialist in non-consentual communication, were it not for magic to charm or dominate her enemies; Information gathering could already be reliably performed without the need for such brutish methods.

Naturally, Nazarick's officers made extensive use of this as well, so cases where classical non-magical interrogation became necessary were few to none, in favor of domination, which was superior in practically every way.

Thus, Neuronist's job was not necessarily 'intelligence gathering' as her job title implied, but rather to cause pain for pain's sake alone.

Flexible as Tanya's morality generally might be, she still found the profession to be distasteful.

That being said, she was also fairly certain that half of Nazarick would not share her conclusion, if not personally share the hobby.

So, she chose to do what any sensible person would do upon learning that her colleagues favored torture as a method for entertainment: Nothing. Their choice of diversion had no relation to her, any more than hers were to them.

Besides, once she looked past the sadism, human-eating, and general disregard for human life, they weren't bad to talk to, personality-wise. The Pleiades maids, for instance, were fairly approachable, once you passed the initial hurdle of being acknowledged as a non-insect. Each had their own developed interests, beyond simply what had been written about them, hobbies they could chat about over tea and snacks (coffee still being irritatingly difficult to source).

On the other hand, there wasn't much conversation to be had when the other party was a Brain Eater obsessed with fashion, gossip, and the latest in inflicting pain onto others. But again, she was under no obligation to socialize with everybody she met to benefit her career.

Tanya wordlessly passed into the frozen palace, every footfall echoing throughout the room. The floor inside was hard, smooth ice with the texture of black marble, the dark tint formed by the deep, empty shadow beneath instead of any paint or dye.

Deep beneath her feet, numerous presences wandered around, living shadows and formless monsters squirmed unnaturally, yet she spared them no attention. Instead she glanced over to the side, where a woman – or rather, monster – with skin the same pale blue as the ice around stood waiting for her.

The two of them exchanged a nod to acknowledge each other's existence, though neither said a word to the other.

Were one of the other Floor Guardians to visit this place, they would be greeted warmly, but her welcome exactly the icy, expressionless mask which matched the woman's appearance.

This woman – one of Cocytus's personal servants and bodyguards, a high-leveled Frost Virgin – wouldn't normally be stationed in this place, but instead transferred to this place a moment ago after sighting her flying around the 5th floor.

No doubt she had arrived to monitor Tanya as much as guide her. The unannounced visit was naturally viewed with some suspicion, and the majority opinion of those monsters with whom she had not yet spoken was to consider her an outsider. None of them would express that hostility outright, of course, but the division was pretty clear.

From the entrance to the open chamber, she passed to the opposite side, where she reached an open staircase which spiraled into the shadows below. Each individual stair was connected to its neighbors by the slightest sliver of its corner, hanging in space more by magic than physics, with neither wall nor handrail on either side, only the empty void, and would rink loudly as she stepped onto it, alerting the shadows which filled the hollow cavern.

Thousands of luminous eyes watched her every move from the blackness, focused on her from all directions, maintaining an even distance to her. On occasion, every single one of the eyes would blink in unison, turning the room nearly pitch-black for the brief moment before they reopened.

Were an invader to intrude into this prison, they would find their party forced onto this narrow walkway, struck and grasped at from every direction by the shadows themselves, unable to coordinate their attacks by the precarious terrain, yet forced to fight in a situation where a single misstep meant falling into the pit of unfathomable depth. Not even flight would save the prospective invader, for the void all around would distort their perspective, making it next to impossible to distinguish space from floor from wall from enemy.

All in all, although its construction would violate innumerable safety regulations, it made for a devious trap against any attacker, as well as any would-be escapees from the prison underneath.

These monsters known as Myriad Eyes gazed down onto Tanya like stars in the void.

On occasion, some of the minimally-intelligent monsters spawns or automatic traps might recognize her as an intruder, as it was not technically possible for her to be officially associated as an ally without the game's command console, which was inaccessible to Ainz.

That being said, the Myriad Eyes was a distant relative of Beholder-type monsters, with a relatively high level, the ability to use numerous evil-eye skills and 9th tier magic, and corresponding intellect.

They were easily capable of mental communication, let alone enemy recognition, and the fact that they neither stopped her nor asked for her purpose in coming here implied that they were content with letting her do her business unimpeded.

Tanya continued down the long downward spiral, the Frost Virgin still following behind without a word, matching her steps exactly four stairs behind.

Finally, after eight full revolutions around the long coil of stairs, the path straightened out and passed into a wall. From the moment she passed underneath the small black gateway, the curtain of darkness fell away, leading her into her destination, a stone-brick dungeon.

From here she would have to navigate a labyrinthian series of tunnels. Despite having passed through here once before, the exact path had since changed as a number of walls were in fact mobile, wall-shaped monsters which would on occasion relocate and alter the maze.

An intruder who could differentiate monsters from ordinary walls could destroy the former to make a new path for themselves, while the regular residents of the dungeon could bypass it entirely by entering a password to interact with Nazarick's mechanisms, or in the case of Ainz and some other Guardians, teleport straight through to the end using the power of the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown.

None were ideal, but for Tanya, there was a fourth solution: following the flow of magic which could be followed from start to finish like Ariadne's Thread laid out for her, an unintended consequence of the same system which once tested player-made dungeons to ensure they could not completely block off any paths, leaving a faint but barely perceptible trail in the process.

The thought occurred to her that there was a fifth option as well, that being to simply ask the Frost Virgin next to her for the correct route. She, being among Cocytus's elites, would definitely be in possession of that information, but Tanya chose not to do so as a matter of preference.

It didn't take long at all for her to exit out the other end, the Frost Virgin visibly bewildered by their avoiding every single dead end and pitfall along the way. She had just witnessed every step of the meticulously designed Fifth Floor defenses ignored as if they had never been there. Worse, the method by which Tanya had done so was impossible to identify with her abilities.

She had gone along with the expectation of being asked the solution to their puzzle, yet quickly found herself on the side in need of answers, wanting to ask for the flaw, but too prideful to admit that there was one.

From here, the events of today would probably be reported to Cocytus, then forwarded to Demiurge, who would either figure out the solution, or otherwise be in a position to demand an explanation from her, being her organizational superior.

The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick was by no means free of bureaucracy. Like two disjoint branches of a military state competing for accolades and funding, they would naturally compete for the finite resource that was Ainz's attention and praise.

It was admittedly far more functional than the sort of dictatorship where each individual would build their own faction for the purpose of seizing resources and claiming the throne, but not nearly as efficient as a corporation which learned to divide operations and streamline communications – unfortunately made even more difficult given the nature of humans, and as much as she would love to take a stab at it herself, this was not the right world for doing so.

If that was to be her goal, she would first need the power to cross dimensions, either by achieving it herself, purchasing Shiro's favor, or ideally, both. Fortunately, her currently ageless body meant that there was no time limit to doing so, but reality was unlikely to be so kind. Whether through the appearance of new enemies, evolution of past foes, or idling gods, time would invariably mean new challenges, so idling around was never an option.

Even with no immediate threats to her safety, she needed power. Not just the unclear power of 'levels' granted through whatever system it was that replicated the game of YGGDRASIL but real personal improvement, training and experience with magic, and one way or another, to transcend her still pitiful magic capacity. Exploiting Tier Magic provided a number of stopgaps such as sealing magic for later use, but it did little to improve the pool of mana available to her.

The System's game levels could be a useful step, as evidenced by Ainz and the vast aura of magic he constantly radiated, but even that appeared as a mere flicker of a spark in her eyes when compared to what she had seen from Being X, himself a tiny fragment of the limitless potential exhibited by a supreme evil god that she had gotten a brief glance at.

She had witnessed this bottomless abyss of power against which she was less than a gnat, not than an abnormal sinner and target for reformation, merely a passing amusement barely worth toying with.

And yet, she met it not with despair, but with growing hope. There were a number of other ordinary people like herself, individuals who had lived an ordinary life only to be thrown into another world on the whims of some god. Of these select few, many were weaker than her as she was now, but more importantly, a good few were stronger. At least one had even ascended to true divinity, which strongly implied that there existed a path to reaching that level of power.

Tanya had no doubt that the exact same path was sealed to her, the theoretical possibility of that evolution was a ravenous temptation. In hindsight, allowing the devil that was Being X to escape her punishment with simple death would never have been enough to satisfy her.

To surpass him, seize his throne and tear down every statue and eliminate his fanatical worshipers from the face of every world… that would make for a good starting point.

Revenge, after all, was rarely something satisfied so easily by death. Grudges lasted generations, long past the deaths of those who originally bore them.

Vengeance would motivate the most irrational of actions, to throw away one's future for a moment's satisfaction, or to devote one's entire life to revenge against a god-like being.

With every idle moment, she visualized the path she had to take in order to achieve success, planning the details of every step along the to her goal.

Which had brought here here.

Tanya angled her head to look up at the girl suspended from the cold stone wall.

She had been left nude but for the iron restraints around each of her limbs, torso, and neck. That the visible skin was pristine without the slightest blemish was not evidence of mercy, but instead demonstrated that whatever had been done to her was of the intensity that complete healing was necessary to keep her alive – she had her uses, after all, as Tanya had once argued.

From her vacuous eyes, it was clear that she would not be speaking by her own volition, so Tanya began by using [Dominate] without a second thought.

At once, the prisoner's eyes darted open to look at her, without the slightest hint of emotion or resistance.

Tanya had only to issue a single command.

"Now, tell me everything the Theocracy knows about the Dragon Lords." (Tanya)

* * *

Start of Volume 3. Will try to get back to regular schedule from here

Discord for random discussion, complaining, and pointing out errors: WZr7tET


	18. Volume 3: Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Part 1**

The clashing of metal against metal rang out, echoing against the walls, repeated regularly, almost rhythmically. The trained ear might notice a bit of variation across strikes, some hits lighter, others heavier, but even an amateur adventurer could broadly classify it as the ringing of two blades.

Though there were several individuals contributing to the metallic orchestra, the great skill with which each weapon was being swung resulted in an unexpectedly proper percussive performance as equally-matched individuals repeatedly exchanged blows, their match more a dance with blades than a battle to the death.

On one side, five individuals fought with a door to their back, denying entry to any attempting to pass through without sufficient strength.

At the front, there was a massive Knight over two meters tall, wielding a tower shield and flamberge scaled proportionally to its own height. Next to it was a slightly shorter, less armored, but far more heavily armed Warrior, an axe in one hand, large warhammer in the other, and half a dozen other assorted weapons strapped to various locations on its body.

Directly behind these two was an Assassin wielding two broadswords as if they were featherweight daggers, followed by a Wizard and Priest, dressed in black robes with crimson details, regal but for their tattered appearance, matching with the rough, decayed appearance of the rest of this group.

The five of them were collectively the model of a well-balanced adventurer party, if one were to ignore the fact that all five of them were already dead. Beneath helm and robe were the rotten visages of undead; behind gaps in armor were streaks running across their limbs like veins, though carrying a dark and fetid liquid not at all similar to fresh blood.

Unlike simple undead such as zombies or skeletons whose ability to comprehend orders was roughly limited to 'charge' and 'withdraw', this was a group created by one master, and were capable of fighting with coordination as if they shared one mind.

Even without the ability to exchange words, each moved with the understanding of how its allies would act at any point in time. If there was one consolation to the people who were forced to fight these nightmares, it was that these undead wouldn't act on anything they heard from somebody who wasn't their summoner. Whereas some liches might listen to and take advantage of their opponents, they were free to shout strategy in front of these without repercussions.

"Gagaran, from your right!" (Tia)

Hearing Tia's warning, Gagaran glanced away from the Death Knight to see the Death Assassin dashing towards her flank, a trail of black smoke drawing a trail as it leapt out from behind the shield to exploit an opening.

"Dammit!" (Gagaran)

She took a step back away from the reach of the huge shield, then parried the assassin's first sword with her own weapon, but felt the second dig a shallow cut into her side the next instant. The gray blade which seemed to melt into the darkness had perfectly found its way between two plates to her skin, leaving a long gash underneath, cutting the mail below and into skin.

Using a large two-handed weapon had its advantages, particularly when dealing with huge monsters with hides not easily penetrated by ordinary weapons, but her lack of a shield quickly turned into a severe vulnerability when facing multiple humanoid enemies wielding blades. Heavy armor helped to make up for that difference, though it was not a perfect solution against particularly powerful enemies.

Left alone the injury would heal quickly enough due to her armor's enchantments, but the gap created in that moment gave the Death Assassin plenty of time to prepare further attacks to other vital points.

Before it had the chance to do so, it was interrupted by a pair of flying daggers. The first of these it blocked by pulling back the sword it was about to strike with, the second by stepping back out of its path.

Immediately afterwards, it twisted to turn in place, vanishing from the spot and appearing a short distance away, its two blades intercepting Tina's knife from striking at the Death Priest in the rear lines.

Tina abandoned the attack as soon as it failed and tried to pull back into the shadows, but the Death Assassin wouldn't let her go so easily. Though avoiding or deflecting its stabs and slashes was just barely within her abilities, she couldn't find a free second to gain some distance from the attacker.

Each strike pushed her towards one corner of the corridor, next to the wooden door the undead had been blocking.

Currently, Gagaran was blocked by the Death Knight while Lakyus was holding back the Death Warrior, which was easily matching her with the Death Priest's support. Tia was providing support behind those two, but wouldn't be able to sneak past the two large vanguard undead in this narrow corridor.

She narrowly slipped out of the way of a stab from the Death Assassin's right-hand sword, receiving a thin gash across her cheek in the process. The height difference between the two added additional force on top of the monster's strength, which didn't lose out to the even larger Death Knights, on account of their being some of the most offensive-focused of similarly-leveled undead.

Attack after attack, Tina was backed towards the wall. She was experienced enough in combat to recognize the disadvantageous position she was pressed towards, yet not quite strong enough to fight her way out without support. Avoiding any critical damage took the entirety of her focus, leaving her no time to reposition away from the wall, or counterattack in any meaningful way.

Two swords wouldn't necessarily allow for faster attacks without adequate training, but in the case of undead whose entire existence was designed around using that skill, balancing to perfectly make use of both weapons despite lacking the biological functions necessary for a sense of balance.

The Death Assassin lunged towards her with both blades, which she dodged away from while parrying the attack. However, absorbing the weight of the huge undead predictably knocked her off balance. At the same time, the Death Assassin had thrown off its own form, so it was unable to counterattack, and also left vulnerable.

Yet, while Tina's three allies were currently occupied, the four other undead were not all being restrained. She had up until then fought while keeping the Death Assassin between herself and the two magic caster undead.

Until just now, since she had stepped away to see the Death Wizard looking directly at her, one hand raised and pointed in her direction.

A bolt of lightning shot out from its fingers in her direction while she was still in the air, traveling far faster than she could put up a shield technique to defend herself.

In quick succession, she was knocked to the side by the Death Assassin and electrocuted by the Death Wizard's [Lightning], only to be left paralyzed in the air.

Except, it didn't end there. Both she and her opponent originally had similar speed, and each would take roughly the same duration to regain their balance, but now she was frozen for an extra instant, while the Death Assassin was still free.

Adventurers were often forced to fight against monsters much stronger than themselves, wielding the advantage of cooperation and superior equipment. When those two were lost, hunting became a precarious balance where the slightest misstep carried grievous consequences.

Before anybody else in the room could respond, the same Death Assassin spun on its heel to drive a sword straight through her abdomen.

Her eyes were thrown open in shock, but could do little as the undead followed through with its swing, finishing the attack by throwing her away at a nearby wall.

With a brief scream cut short upon crashing into the hard stone, she collapsed onto the ground, a dark pool of crimson slowly growing underneath her.

"Tina!" (Lakyus)

Lakyus screamed out at the scene she had spotted out of the corner of her eye, swinging her demonic sword at the Death Warrior she was still fighting against, to which it crossed its two weapons to stop the hit, pushing the two of them apart briefly.

Spotting the gap between the two vanguard undead she had just forced open, she took one hand off her own sword to command each of the Floating Swords hovering around her shoulders towards the Death Wizard who had been left open.

By her command, the six enchanted blades shot towards the caster, flying by past the staggered Death Warrior's weapons at an angle where the Death Knight couldn't move to intercept them with its own shield.

Despite that, they were not fast enough to slip past the same Death Assassin who had rushed back to the center of their formation without stopping to admire its handiwork. Swinging its own dual swords in succession, it quickly deflected two of the projectiles before they could find their target, sending them straight into the ground.

Four did fly true to their target, although the first to find its mark instead hit a transparent barrier around the wizard, breaking the shield buff placed onto it by the nearby Death Priest, at the cost of losing its momentum and falling to the ground harmlessly.

Though only half of Lakyus's attack reached the target, three golden swords still found their way into the Death Wizard's rotten flesh, one striking each shoulder and a third burrowing into its chest. And yet, the undead merely scowled in irritation at having been damaged.

Not even the holy-element effect added to her attacks were particularly effective against many of the undead found here. Somehow, their primary weakness had been entirely negated – or perhaps she was simply not strong enough to deal meaningful damage to such powerful enemies even while exploiting a weakness of theirs.

Lakyus wasn't without any other trump cards, but none were ideal for fighting in a confined area, nor against the likes of undead which couldn't be affected by holy magic of the level she could cast.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Death Warrior charging forward once again. Being out of position to properly dodge or parry the attack, she raised Kilineyram above her head to block its axe. The momentum behind the impact passed into her arm and spread through her entire body, yet even that wasn't enough to absorb the entire attack, and she slid backwards a meter across the ground before the two stopped, their respective weapons locked together.

A quick glance to the side revealed that while Gagaran was still able to stall the Death Knight for the moment, the situation was not stable. With Tia moving forward to take her sister's place against the Death Assassin, she would no longer be available to provide support by throwing out her ninja techniques towards the undead.

Where four struggled desperately, it was obvious what the inevitable outcome would be were they to continue fighting as a team of three against the same five opponents, especially after taking into account their getting tired while the undead continued to fight without fear or fatigue.

Worse, Tina was still injured and unreachable, on the ground unconscious and bleeding heavily from the stab wound the Death Assassin had inflicted onto her. It wasn't the most severe of fatal wounds, but placed them on a finite timer to finish, lest Lakyus be forced to resurrect her again only months after she and Gagaran finished recovering from their deaths at Jaldabaoth's magic.

With the Death Warrior charging towards her once again, Lakyus made the only choice she could to keep the party alive.

"We surrender!" (Lakyus)

She shouted, and the Death Warrior stopped in place, freezing its movements as if it was disjoint from the concept of momentum. Around her, the Death Knight had pulled back its shield, the Death Assassin withdrew its blades, and both the Death Wizard and Death Priest cancelled the spells they had been casting.

Each nodded their rotten heads, then turned away, walking straight into the stone wall, which promptly opened up to let them enter, before melding back into a solid barrier.

Without pausing, Lakyus ran forward to Tina's side.

Much like the Death Knight would create Squire Zombies from the enemies slain by its blade, the dual swords of a Death Assassin carried with them the power to interfere with healing the wounds it inflicts: 1st tier magic would lose its effect entirely, 2nd tier would recover with the effect of what 1st tier magic normally would, and so on.

Fortunately, Lakyus was capable of using [Heavy Recover], which would carry the effect of a 2nd tier spell after taking the curse into account, which should be sufficient for healing a fresh stab wound, provided the internal organs were relatively undamaged – the extremely sharp swords used by the Death Assassin easily satisfied that condition, passing in one side and out the other without tearing off too much unrelated flesh.

She set to work immediately, pressing her hands to Tina's stomach and casting her magic. The body lit up with a glow as the many scratches all on her skin quickly sealed, while the largest wound in the center slowly began to close.

Even though this was enough for a stopgap treatment, Tina would no doubt require additional treatment over the next couple days to allow her to recover the missing blood and ensure any broken bones were properly healed, but those few days should be plenty for a natural recovery. Adamantite-ranked adventurers were quite resilient, after all, at least by human standards.

With Tina's rough breathing beginning to smooth out and stabilize, Lakyus allowed herself to relax as well, after which the sentiment spread to the other two.

"What a ridiculous job we've gotten ourselves into…" (Gagaran)

Gagaran muttered while watching the scene, her own cuts and bruises slowly regenerating themselves by the enchantment on the gauntlets she wore.

"… We've been at it twice now, and the result is the same. These things are impossible. I don't see how we'll get past without magic support." (Tia)

"Ha, if only a lazy somebody would get off her ass and help out…" (Gagaran)

"… Oh? And who might you be referring to?"

Tia jumped up with one hand on her dagger, drawing it halfway from its sheath before getting a good look at the intruder.

"Damn, Keeno, where did you come from?" (Tia)

Keeno shrugged.

"You all seemed to be having such a fun time, I couldn't bring myself to interrupt." (Keeno)

"… Fun, she says. Just where did the stupidly defensive Evileye we all knew run off to…" (Tia)

"Well, as much as I hate to say it, there's really nothing better for training… at the end of the day, getting beaten up isn't as bad as actually dying, even if it does feel like we're bashing our heads against a wall for this." (Gagaran)

Gagaran muttered her own dissatisfaction alongside Tia, but in reality, the opportunity to practice fighting against powerful enemies without much risk of death was itself valuable.

"-But damn, those undead aren't normal, how the hell can anybody beat those?" (Gagaran)

"We've seen them before, haven't we? It's just, the power of the magic caster who summoned them, an environmental effect like that of an absurdly powerful druid… and probably a number of others I can't begin to imagine. They've been strengthened to a new level entirely, but in the end defeating them is the same, just keep hitting them until they stop moving." (Keeno)

"If only the boss's holy magic were to work like it should, it might be a different story." (Tia)

"Having fewer idiots running around swinging swords wildly is fine, but if it meant a hundred years from now, some divine magic caster on the level of Momon-sama comes around, they might well be grooming their own worst enemy. This place is meant to be for training, no doubt they understand the dangers of that as well. It's hardly surprising that the Sorcerer King wouldn't want to encourage it." (Keeno)

"Right, I can understand the reasoning, but it still doesn't feel right to think that we're going to be helping them to train up the next generation of E-Rantel's adventurers like this." (Gagaran)

"Work's dried up. It's basically down to this or retiring on our savings." (Keeno)

"… So she says, but it's another convenient excuse for her to stay in this city." (Tia)

Keeno looked over at Tia, unamused.

"I really mean it. While we were off marching around the Theocracy, I had some time to go looking around. Adventurer work in the Empire is pretty much down to just the plainest of goblin hunting, everything else has turned into work the Emperor throws to the borrowed undead army in the name of cooperative training… and they've still come out better." (Keeno)

Tia tilted her head and asked,

"How bad has it gotten in the Kingdom since we were last there, then?" (Tia)

"The whole guild's falling apart. Where the Empire has more or less managed to keep their branches of the guild under thumb and force them into working with the Sorcerous Kingdom, the Re-Estize Kingdom just lost its leading nobility twice. Most of them were never the sort to treat adventurers well from the start, and now guild branches in those cities are outright refusing to submit.

The guild is split down the middle, between the half convinced by the guildmaster from E-Rantel who are willing to fall under the Sorcerer King's proposed system, and the half insisting their guild is purely international and their own charter must still apply no matter what Raeven or the Princess try to say about it." (Keeno)

Tia's face briefly lit up in understanding.

"Ahh, now that you mention it…" (Tia)

"Right. I don't know whether they're just trying to prove they still have power in the Kingdom, but yes, only human species are able to hold adventurer rank, so they're blacklisting every demihuman or heteromorph registered in the Sorcerous Kingdom from working in the Kingdom. Except, they're also pushing to revoke the registration of the adventurer that is 'Evileye' for misrepresentation, or according to the extremists trying to show off, you're all liable by association." (Keeno)

"After everything that's gone on in the capital in these last few years, what the hell are they thinking?" (Gagaran)

Indeed, making this decision in the wake of Jaldabaoth's attacks on both the Re-Estize Kingdom and Holy Kingdom seemed nonsensical.

The Adventurer's Guild failed to properly subdue the self-proclaimed Demon Emperor, who went on to terrorize the Holy Kingdom, until he was twice defeated by the Sorcerer King and his agents. Immediately afterwards, the guild began to retaliate against the policies put forth by the Sorcerous Kingdom.

Even if these events occurred by coincidence and held no relation to the Guild's decision, they were nonetheless polarizing: Their leaders care only for maintaining their own positions; They care more for extorting money from their clients than providing for those adventurers who risk their lives on their behalf; They lack the means to adjust for changing times and continue providing work when circumstances change.

Having been placed in the position of being unable to defend against external threats, lacking money as soon as the Kingdom's nobility lost the means to pay for work, and generally having insufficient work for the adventurers they employed, the decision to double down on opposing the Sorcerous Kingdom who were busily advertising new work, training, and true 'adventure' for their own adventurers.

Under these circumstances, adding a seemingly political decision did nothing to improve the guild's failing reputation. To threaten and alienate the same Blue Rose who had become almost universally beloved in the capital seemed nonsensical to everybody who heard the claims the guild was making about them.

So strange was the choice to some that sections of the guild even went so far as to test lower members for the effects of charming magic, but to no avail.

"… What does the situation look like now, then?" (Tia)

"It's hard for me to say. The guild in the Kingdom is probably deep in the red, from the way the rewards they're offering have been dropping. Meanwhile, Raeven's cutting away the commissions the they would normally make to keep the Crown afloat for a while longer, but with how much they're having to spend on buying the Sorcerous Kingdom's grain, they're bound to go bankrupt before the Kingdom can recover on its own." (Keeno)

"So this is what it's like to watch your home country slowly dying…" (Lakyus)

Lakyus finally commented on their discussion, slowly standing up with a forlorn expression.

"How is she?" (Tia)

"Don't worry, Tina is stable. For now, she just needs some rest. Gagaran, could you carry her back up?" (Lakyus)

"Sure, I've got her. The way back to the entrance seems to be safe on the way back, anyway." (Gagaran)

"… Well, yeah." (Tia)

Gagaran easily lifted Tina's still-unconscious form. Any one of them had plenty of strength for the task, but it was natural that the one with the largest build would be the least constrained by crrying somebody else, so long as enemy attacks were not a concern.

With the exception of Lakyus, the other three walked through the dimly-lit corridors seemingly without a care in the world. It was only the party leader who remained on alert.

"I can't understand just how you can be so relaxed with the presence of undead all around us." (Lakyus)

The abilities of a priest gave Lakyus the ability to sense when undead were nearby. It wasn't unheard of for intelligent undead to seek out and possess artifacts which could deceive recognition, with Keeno's ring being a prime example. Nonetheless, it helped to identify the number of enemy presences around her. In this dungeon, that sense was constantly active as she felt dozens, perhaps even hundreds of assorted undead monsters filing around behind the walls surrounding them.

"Of course there are undead, but we're in a training ground with its own rules, and we've all already lost." (Keeno)

"… Hm? I get us, but when'd you lose? Where were you getting caught up while we were fighting?" (Tia)

"A couple minutes after you started, I entered as well, from the fourth floor. Those things you got clobbered by were swarming everywhere, fighting them alone is a pain, and even worse, half of them can just see through invisibility." (Keeno)

"So, not even the ancient vampire of legends can beat these things?" (Gagaran)

"No, they weren't the issue. There was a damned Night Lich at the end." (Keeno)

"… You're kidding. Those really exist?" (Gagaran)

"Of course they do, just not this far north, anymore. Last one got hunted down by the Theocracy's heroes over a century ago. Well, maybe I could beat a natural Night Lich as I am now, but with the same summon bonuses as the other undead in here? It wasn't even a fight." (Keeno)

Everybody looked shocked at Keeno's assertion.

"… Oi, oi, wait, was it that overwhelming?" (Gagaran)

"He was, but… no, I meant that literally… he said that his master was still busy constructing the next area, and turned me away at the door." (Keeno)

"-And once again the monsters from our legends are just ordinary Subordinate A… I don't know what we're supposed to be surprised about anymore…" (Tia)

"Just give up and be glad we don't have to fight them seriously, I guess? Better be thankful there wasn't some moronic noble back in the Kingdom to start a war. Or, should we say it's thanks to Jaldabaoth for stopping them before one of them could?" (Keeno)

"Oi, that's…" (Gagaran)

"… Sorry, Lakyus. I said too much." (Keeno)

Darkness covered Lakyus's face just from hearing Keeno's casual words, who apologized immediately after recognizing the weight of what she had said, but the damage had already been done.

Lakyus lightly shook her head, looking down.

"… No, it's not as though I don't know where your words are coming from. What happened at the castle was truly awful, but a single look at how the Theocracy's army fared against a detachment of what the Sorcerous Kingdom sent out is more than enough to see what would have happened had the Kingdom somehow gotten involved in a war against them. We as the nobility have nobody to blame but ourselves." (Lakyus)

"Are you sure about not going back to your territory?" (Keeno)

"It's fine. Our Alvein family has enough capable retainers that they'll be fine managing the territory for a few months without supervision. Anyways, my going back now probably means staying there. After that, there really is nothing for me but marriage, if the family is to continue… it'll be the last of my adventures. My final duty to Father is at least that much." (Lakyus)

"The duties of a noble, eh…" (Gagaran)

"For those who have a kingdom of their own, that is." (Keeno)

"Then, the oni boss just needs to become a proper Oni Boss to keep adventuring?" (Tia)

"Pah, out of all the reasons to abandon humanity, that might be the most ridiculous I have heard suggested." (Keeno)

The party shared a quick laugh while ascending the long staircase towards the surface. Their banter continued as they emerged out a plain dirt mount with a door, flanked by a pair of the same Death Knights which they had just been fighting.

Neither of them paid attention to the group exiting through the door behind them as the glowing sockets under their helms continued to peer out, sentinels against anybody attempting to enter the dungeon before it properly opens.

Though the entrance was a barely-recognizable hillock covered by the dense fog of the Katze Plains, guarding it was important both to keep spies from taking the chance to examine what they were constructing, as well as to prevent any accidental deaths which might be blamed on the Sorcerous Kingdom's negligence. Even if there was nothing to be done about the claim officially, trust was a precious resource when convincing adventurers to participate in using the labyrinth.

To that end, only a small number of parties were informed of its location and permitted to enter: one Mithril-ranked party called 'Rainbow' who had originally been sold on the idea of Ainz's new adventurers, and one Adamantite-ranked party in Blue Rose, allegedly by Momon's request and invitation.

Mere days after their departure, the international adventurer's guild called into question the party's legal legitimacy, having waited until they were away to send a notice requesting that the party be reorganized to resolve some inconsistencies with the members' registration – the notice being burned and discarded promptly upon receipt without a reply. To even answer might legitimize the argument the guild was making.

So the five of them continued to pass time in another country, waiting to see whether the state of events in the Kingdom would change, for developments within the guild which had lost so much of its renown and profitable work and found several nations' worth of guild branches deep in the red.

Under those circumstances, the work offered by the Sorcerous Kingdom was both convenient and lucrative, provided one was willing to perform unusual work for the kingdom of undead. Of course, the choice to do so was not without consequence, particularly for Lakyus, whose decision to do any sort of work with the same nation they had once suffered a crushing defeat against led a number of the Kingdom's few surviving noble families to denounce her.

Even though the person in question was very much the type whose loyalty would compel her to stay and fight to the death against an insurmountable foe, to the point where her own companions would have no choice but to forcibly kidnap her out of harm's way.

Yet, the truth did little to appease some. While most of those who failed to comprehend the power dynamic between the Sorcerous Kingdom and their own had conveniently found their names included among those present in the room during Jaldabaoth's appearance, there were still a number who were nonetheless unable to come and therefore survived that day.

In the following months, however, they were among those who just happened to be revealed as complicit in Bowlrob's attempted treason, or just happened to be hiding evidence of crimes which Raeven or Renner were able to discover, or on occasion, just happened to get caught in and killed during a rare peasant uprising caused by mismanagement of their territories.

A series of very unfortunate coincidences, without a doubt.

Anybody suggesting otherwise would result in another unfortunate coincidence.

Such was the nature of random chance.

The party carefully made their way through the dense fog of the Katze Plains, easily dispatching a number of ordinary undead found in the depths of the region: Skeleton Warlords, Organ Beasts, and Necrosome Giants – the sort of undead which were generally an even match for a party of Platinum-ranked adventurers – fell without much effort on the part of Blue Rose.

Common sense was a fragile thing, one which fell apart when one spent too long interacting with unreasonable beings who lacked the slightest care for established strength rankings.

From the plains they returned to E-Rantel, passing through the huge portcullis of the fortress city roughly an hour after the sun had set, the last leg of their journey lit only by the light of the full moon.

If there was one convenience for the traveler to a city managed by undead, it was that the gates could be kept open through the night, so there was no need to camp outside for an entire night should they arrive at the wrong time.

All undead had darkvision as a racial skill, as did several of the demihuman races which had fallen under the Sorcerer King's rule, so there were plenty of options for guards to watch from the towers without caring whether it was day or night. Thus, there was no need for the city to restrict itself to human cities' limited schedule.

Of course, this didn't mean that every establishment would be open through the night. Excepting some bars, much of the pleasure quarter, and a few shops marketed towards nocturnal races, the majority of the city still did their business while the sun was up.

Yet others were slowly trying to adapt, such as the Adventurer's Guild itself. A year ago it would have been bustling for most of the day, but it had since decayed into a husk, leaving less than a dozen staff, and even that was arguably excessive.

Although a single receptionist at the front desk was more than sufficient to handle the occasional party passing through, the local guild, rather than firing the excess staff, kept them on by extending the guild's hours to operate day and night.

The choice came at the suggestion of Ainzach, the guildmaster, to show off the guild's desire to work with the Sorcerous Kingdom and accommodate the many races which it would employ in the future.

In reality, light-sensitive species in the Sorcerous Kingdom were few and far between: The Quagoa, for instance, preferred life in the mines and quarries and were ill-suited to travel. It was clear enough to everybody who thought about it that Ainzach was paying the difference out of his own pocket to continue supporting his guild's staff.

Still, it was occasionally convenient to the few adventurers still in E-Rantel, there was no need for anybody to complain about how the formerly active adventurer and guildmaster chose to spend his own money.

The receptionist at the desk this time was a middle-aged woman with a scar on her right arm, peeking out from underneath the long sleeves of her shirt. An adventurer as well, long ago, retired and widowed in the field years ago. Without full use of her dominant hand, there were few jobs left open to her, so becoming a receptionist was both a source of income for an incapable adventurer and a way for the guild to keep hold of an experienced member's knowledge even after they were no longer to go into the field, for the few cases where an accomplished adventurer was injured beyond recovery but not beyond survivability.

The five members of Blue Rose split up in front of the large guild building: Gagaran went ahead with Tina to let her sleep and recover, while Lakyus and Tia moved to the receptionist's desk, and after a brief discussion, passed around the desk and straight to the guildmaster's room in the back, as he personally handled reports from the adventurers testing out the training labyrinth. Incidentally, Keeno had effectively given a report directly to the Night Lich she had encountered, and skipped explaining the same to Ainzach in favor of following behind Gagaran.

And, upon reaching the inn, they split once again into different rooms. There was plenty of unoccupied rooms, and money was of little concern. Besides that, since undead did not require sleep, Keeno would naturally work on some hobby or another all through the night, bothering the normal human members.

In particular, Gagaran was despite appearances a very light sleeper, sometimes woken by simple rustling of pages, and so the vampire would regularly be consigned to her own space, be it at an inn or in a tent.

The inside of her room was, as usual, nearly pitch black, with dark blinds on top of the regular curtains which had come with the room.

No sooner had she tossed her equipment to the side and sat down than she froze in place, suddenly alerted to somebody intruding from behind her.

* * *

**Part 2**

The presence wasn't like that of an assassin creeping up, and neither had the doors or windows been stealthily opened. The intruder had arrived through teleportation. Not plain 5th tier [Teleportation] she had learned, nor a higher-tier spell of a similar nature, but something else: a racial ability, teleportation which was a function of the world itself.

Thinking that, the image of her old companion, clad in platinum immediately came to mind as the one possessing such an ability, but they had just met. Rather, it was because they had spoken so recently that she scowled as the thought came up.

"… Dammit, what are you thinking, meeting in this city-" (Keeno)

She turned and stood up from her chair to face an unknown little girl in a white dress listening to her with one eyebrow raised. She froze, and the two maintained eye contact.

The girl's appearance was stunning, as if a collection of the finest features had been molded together by the hand of a god, if a tiny bit mismatched with her lacking height. The dress as well, a perfectly crafted piece of the highest-class material, but strangely overdecorated, almost childish.

Her irritation quickly turned to confusion, until she simply muttered, "… Who?"

In response, the girl chuckled with only the slightest shift of the corner of her mouth and stepped forward. In doing so, her face began to shift, stripping away like a mask as she passed through a plane in front of her, revealing a more familiar blond-haired, blue-eyed, pale-faced girl in her place.

"… What a rude fellow, I put on a different face and it's enough for you to forget about your favorite demon…" (Tanya)

Tanya voiced her complaints sarcastically, before turning serious for a moment.

She continued, "… Before that, I'm more interested, just who were you expecting to see here…" (Tanya)

Keeno froze up, thinking carefully about the exact words which had been overheard. After a few seconds of hesitation, she quietly shook her head and answered.

"Sorry. It was my misunderstanding, but I cannot answer." (Keeno)

"Is that so? Well, fine, confirming who else an independent contractor works for isn't my concern." (Tanya)

Tanya shrugged and gave up with unexpected ease.

Were she dealing with somebody without an undead's complete immunity to mind-affecting effects, she might follow up with the practiced combination of [Dominate] and [Control Amnesia] to extract information before erasing recent memories of the interrogation, but that option was presently sealed.

Even still, there was no pressing need for her to immediately confirm what she already believed. The history of this world, as she had heard from those natives of the world who had studied it – or lived it – implied a couple of candidates out of the remaining members of the original Thirteen Heroes.

Certainty sometimes carried value, but under the current circumstances, there would be no action to follow knowing, so it would be mostly inconsequential. Regardless, there were other ways to extract information without magic.

"Then, on an unrelated note, what do you think about necromancers? … Dragons?" (Tanya)

Tanya carefully watched the movements of her eyes, changes to her countenance, even the way magic was flowing through her body. But even without the latter, the former two were more than enough to draw a conclusion. Try as she might to hide them, Keeno lacked the experience or ability to control her emotions, which had always been hidden from the world by the mask which usually served to disguise her race.

"I was wondering who it was you were off meeting with… well, no matter." (Tanya)

"Even if I am the one saying it, can you really just ignore it? Aren't they your enemies?" (Keeno)

"Hypothetically speaking, even if you were selling information about an open city, there isn't much to be said, and neither would you be the only one attempting to do so. Of course, were it to come to actual hostilities, you had best avoid getting involved, for your own sake." (Tanya)

A fair number of spies and agents were known to be in E-Rantel, representing everybody from the Republic to the northwest, the City-State Alliance in the east, down to the Draconic Kingdom to the southeast, and every nation in between.

Some sent adventurers, others their own covert agents. Some were quietly collecting information, others made contact trying to gain favor.

Regardless of their origin, they were mostly being allowed to stay in the city, so that they might be followed back to whoever sent them. The few who attempted to sneak into the castle itself were made to disappear, as were those who attempted to bring harm to Nazarick's NPCs.

In the end, there was little harm to allowing them to spend time in E-Rantel, as there was little of worth being hidden in E-Rantel. Any information of value would be hidden within Nazarick itself, or otherwise defended.

Time spent attempting to spy on the city would be wasted, so one or two extra independent agents in the city were hardly worth reporting – or so Tanya reasoned.

"Uninvolved, huh. We aren't even at the level of being worth conscripting… what a strange country this is." (Keeno)

"Of course that's not the case. Talented magic engineers are more than valuable enough to crush a few countries over. Only so many people can research magic at a fundamental level, after all, and I'm already fed up with dealing with obsessed old men for that. Personally, I'd say you're the only one worth recovering out of that entire Kingdom." (Tanya)

"… I'm not interested in hearing those words from you…" (Keeno)

Keeno turned away, picking the old mask up from the corner of the desk, where it had been propped up, and placed it over her face.

It was a simple Magic Item, useful more for covering up her inhuman facial features than the actual magic effect it was enchanted with. That, combined with the hood which covered the rest of her head created the enigmatic magic caster that was Evileye, whose thoughts were indiscernible to the outside world.

Except, for instance, when dealing with a mage already trained in spacial perception to better use magic for interfering with the world, whose talent in doing so was further augmented by specialized equipment to an unreasonable level. Against an observer who viewed the world through the movement of magic as easily as light, a simple opaque barrier proved no obstacle.

_She's unexpectedly weak to praise,_ Tanya thought to herself.

Her words weren't meant as idle praise, either. It was Keeno's research which served as the foundation from which she could start disassembling every other piece of tier magic she had the chance to record into her memory, and from there, to begin reconstructing the spells into a more practically usable form, with extraneous elements and limitations removed.

Teleportation magic without the visual effects or cooldown restrictions between uses, for instance, had been close to the forefront of her own experimentation, which resulted in something coincidentally similar to special non-spell teleportation like that of a World-Class Item, though Tanya herself had no way of knowing this, since no such item was available in Nazarick. It was still nowhere near the level of perfected dimensional magic, after all, so she hardly saw it as something to brag about.

Although, her need for a researcher only extended to translating the source magic. Everything else would be down to practical experimentation, something nobody but herself was capable of doing – so there was no further need for outside assistance, only time and practice.

"… Well, fine. I'll go along with your reasoning. So you came to show off transformation magic? I don't recall you bringing up any designs for it before now, though." (Keeno)

"Of course not, rather than transformation, it's an illusion. And it's not really magic, it's a formula… sorcery, I guess you could call it? An overlaid composite decoy, if you care. Seems fine for a disguise, if you couldn't see through it." (Tanya)

"I suppose it does, but are you even doing such a thing? Or rather… doesn't that appearance itself essentially disqualify it as a disguise?" (Keeno)

Tanya made use of an ordinary decoy, much the same as she had been for years, improved slightly with higher precision to fix the image's coordinates in space. The form itself was nearly indistinguishable from a real person, aside from lacking detail in its facial expressions. It naturally couldn't be touched, but visually, it should appear entirely human, compared side-by-side.

The problem came from the actual appearance she chose to use.

It was a composite model made by putting together traits from several other people to create an entirely new nonperson. Just as she had created 'Colonel Gregorio von Turner' by tossing together a dozen or so passing officers into a nondescript senior officer to sit in a chair and issue orders to test potential recruits, so too was the appearance she had overlaid over herself.

However, rather than picking candidates from the officers she worked with, her appearance was patched together from the women whose appearance she had ready access to: the females of Nazarick. She began by mixing facial features from Albedo and Shalltear, adding on hair from them and a few of the maids, toning the body using Aura as a base – plus just a bit of Mare for balance – and so on.

Being a personal disguise, she had to roughly match it to her own frame, lest her movement cause the image to separate from her own skeletal structure, or from the clothing she was actually wearing, though looser clothing was far more workable in this regard, compared to full body armor.

It was only natural, given that unlike the random, rough military men who would only take the time to care for their appearance in the hours they got leave to sneak off to the red-light district, the examples she was using were the masterpieces of Ainz Ooal Gown, modeled over hundreds of hours to the highest degree of obsession.

So, the end result of Tanya's experimentation was a doll in a white dress. Put side-to-side with Albedo, ninety-nine out of one hundred people would still consider the latter to be more attractive, but just that single pick against a world-class beauty was a testament to just how much this appearance would stick in an average passerby's memory.

Animating facial expressions was usually more trouble than it was worth, aside from when she was actively engaging in conversation. Her dress as well was convenient, as its abnormal origin meant it wasn't really armor as far as her equipment was concerned, and could be worn directly over actual armor without interfering with the status the armor would provide. It might look slightly baggy, but this just gave her illusions a greater margin of error.

Upon seeing that appearance of hers, Ainz muttered something about a Flatfoot, though she had no idea what or who that was supposed to be, and chose to leave it alone. More importantly, he didn't show much interest in the dress, presumably assuming it to come from the vault of forgotten item skins like all the others, which was rather convenient for her, given how difficult it would be to explain its origin without unraveling all the various half-truths she had told up until now.

"A disguise carries a number of purposes. There's no possible way we could travel under the flag of the Sorcerous Kingdom without drawing attention. Simply consider that we do not wish people to believe that both Momon-dono and myself have left the city simultaneously." (Tanya)

If the purpose of a disguise was to avoid attention, then certainly, this appearance may even be worse suited than a demon's natural form. Were the illusion ever to be seen through, explaining it would prove even more difficult.

However, this was after all an expedition by the Sorcerous Kingdom, and its purpose was, among others, to spread the name of that Sorcerous Kingdom across the continent. They had no intention at all of traveling incognito, but rather openly and boldly, fully intent on pressuring countries into submission even before formal diplomatic relations could be established.

Keeno frowned under her mask. In light of the words they had just exchanged, it would hardly make sense to tell her about a secret like that, the idea that the Sorcerer King would be concerned enough about security to disguise the fact that his own agent would be absent from the city. Surely they would understand the risk of this information leaking, she reasoned.

The Sorcerer King commanded numerous monsters with enough power to trample several armies and then some. His own magical might could destroy an unimaginable evil like Jaldabaoth; his intellect plan a dozen steps and predict the actions of both the clever archfiend and those idiots who would attempt to use him; his strength more than a match for the greatest warrior in the Empire's history.

Though Keeno couldn't accurately measure the depth of her power, Tanya had repeatedly stated that she was incomparably weaker than her master. Was there really a need for him to keep the demon around for protection? Unlikely. With Momon, even more so: His role was not had never been to aid or protect the Sorcerer King, so his leaving was by no means a sign that security had weakened. If anything, many believed him to be the only hope of ever defeating the undead king.

What purpose was there to hiding that fact from their enemies? Unless, of course, the concern had never been about personal security, but rather the state of the city.

From the moment Momon had heroically rose up in defense of the people of E-Rantel on the day the city was to be annexed, he became the undisputed protector of the city. They trusted in his protection, and believed in the agreement he had made on that day. To watch over the city. To stop them from attempting a hopeless revolt.

Over a year had passed since then, and it was once again spring, and the citizens of the city were arguably living better than they had previously as a city belonging to the Kingdom. Management of the city had been left to the Prime Minster – or rather, Guardian Overseer Albedo, as they called her – was unquestionably superior to the retired Mayor Panasolei.

True to their word, they had invested countless hours and uncountable resources into the city. Regardless, cynics could be found everywhere and skeptics were not so easily convinced of an undead's good intentions. A good few people still believed that everything up until now was merely a ploy to fatten them up to devour them at a later date.

By all accounts, even this had fallen within Ainz Ooal Gown's expectations. In his words, even the most ideal of circumstances would take two years before the people could be pacified and live without relying on Momon.

And since then, nearly everything had fallen into place to, perhaps even exceeding the most generous of his predictions.

However, Momon was surely an everlasting obstacle to the Sorcerer King. There was no way he wouldn't be. Where else would the king of a country accept his sworn enemy being the target of universal admiration while he himself was feared by all?

Except, Momon could not simply be killed, even if he was an enemy of the state. Were they to do so, every effort they had spent on keeping the peace would immediately go up in smoke.

So, what was the Sorcerous Kingdom to do?

Simple. Momon merely needed to be replaced as the protector of the city. The one set to fill this role was the abnormal demon called Tanya, Keeno reasoned.

She was already nearly as renowned as the 'Dark Hero' of E-Rantel, the story of Jadabaoth's resummoning above the capital and rumors of what happened that night spread throughout both countries almost unnaturally quickly. Despite her being a subject of the same Sorcerer King, surprisingly few saw her with hostility, possibly due to her tender appearance, she somehow seemed more _human_ to the people than the undead king. Add to this the apparent cooperative relationships between Tanya, Momon, and the members of Blue Rose, the demon had unexpectedly become somebody trusted by the people.

Rumor has it there even existed a certain underground organization, founded by a number of obsessed former soldiers returned from the war against the Theocracy who had served under her with a strange form of dedication, but for better or worse, the person in question remained unaware of their existence.

As long as she remained in the city, it may even be possible to move Momon out for a couple months without repercussions, though the advantage of leaving behind a usable piece like her to be able to pull away an uncontrollable force such as Momon was questionable at best.

But, were they able to convince the people that she was still in the city by disguising her as a new adventurer prior to leaving, freeing up both of them at once may well be possible. Leaking the truth of the matter would only hurt the people of the city, not the Sorcerer King, so there would no point to her doing so.

-Or so Keeno reasoned. The truth of the matter may be entirely different. Her realization caused her frown to deepen once again. She had been a fool to even entertain the possibility that she might ever be able to kill the Sorcerer King.

"… It looks like you realized something but I probably shouldn't ask what…" (Tanya)

Tanya quietly muttered under her breath after watching Keeno shifting in place for a few seconds.

Having decided that there wasn't any point to allowing her to continue down whichever rabbit hole she was currently digging into, Tanya stuck a hand sideways into her spatial inventory, and pulled out a small metal tag on a chain, which she lightly lobbed at Keeno.

The plate seemed to flash multiple colors even in the dark room, alternating red, green, and blue as it spun through the air.

Plucking the chain out of the air, Keeno looked at the curious piece of metal. Seen head-on, it was a pitch-black void. Tilting it left, the plate turned a dark green. Up or down, and it appeared the blue of a night sky. Right, and it became a deep crimson.

"… An adventurer's tag?" (Keeno)

She squeezed the thin plate as if to snap it, and it did bend, ever so slightly, before springing back to being perfectly straight immediately after she loosened her grip, giving up. Though she might not have the strength to crack adamantite using just her fingers without magical assistance, any lesser metals would have broken already.

The brief experiment was enough to immediately disqualify every possible metal she could think of.

"… The hell is this made of?" (Keeno)

"'Nironium', I think it was? Do you take me for a metallurgist? It's some useless metal the dwarves were finally figuring out how to use, or something, so they made a few tags for the first production run. The inscription on it will light up if you heat it up with 5th tier magic, to authenticate it." (Tanya)

After a couple seconds of fishing, Tanya pulled out a second tag. Holding it in her hand, she pushed some magic through to create a small flare. Immediately, the metal began to glow, revealing a number of engraved runes in brilliant white, some text and an icon, a simplified variant of the emblem of Ainz Ooal Gown, shrunk down to a single centimeter, drawn in minute detail on one side of the plate.

"You came up with a new adventurer rank for yourselves?" (Keeno)

"Apparently so. No sense in using human standards if it ends up marking a category too diverse to have any meaning. Hence, a new highest… though there are only three assigned, and not all of those are real people. Well, your standard rankings probably don't have any meaning so far south, either, so it's all just self-satisfaction in the end." (Tanya)

Realistically speaking, there wouldn't be much point to maintaining a disguise after separating from the surrounding countries.

She could understand the reasoning that it would be best to hide the more distinct and abnormal items which wouldn't normally appear in this world, such as her regular armor and weapons. The lands far to the south were an unknown region, with the most recent information about the countries in the region being over a century old.

Going by the pattern of centennial appearances of Players in this world, there were still several unaccounted for, who may well live in that part of the continent. Though most players used human avatars and so should have since died of natural causes, assuming that would necessarily be the case carried risks.

Hiding her equipment was a natural response to alleviate some of that risk, as carrying around a rifle or wearing legendary-class armor would be like walking around with a beacon and a nametag.

Admittedly she _was_ set to go out wearing a tag made out of a YGGDRASIL-exclusive metal, but that was part of the deception as well: Level 100 Players wouldn't normally think of treating a level 45 metal as anything but trash. To wear it as if it were important would imply some connection to YGGDRASIL, without the threat that one high-level Player might feel from another. Ideally, it might even draw their curiosity, leading them to let their guard down and reveal themselves.

Her disguise might similarly be unnecessary. Demiurge had indeed suggested that she transform her appearance and make a show of leaving alongside Momon, which they had been taking care of for most of yesterday.

It was best to separate her actions into that of two characters, he had explained, though he didn't give much more detail as to his plans after that, and neither did Tanya feel the need to move past a need-to-know basis for the information which no longer had anything to do with her.

"… And just a few days after the mess the Adventurer's Guild caught us up in… what convenient timing you have there." (Keeno)

Tanya shrugged at the implication.

"… Not my job, I'm just passing out the tags… Well, forget about it. Come to the castle in the morning, at 0800 hours, I'll explain it all then. Doing it again and again is a waste of time." (Tanya)

"Fine. We've had enough of wasting _our_ time grinding against a wall in that place. I'll be holding you to that." (Keeno)

"In the morning, then. Tell your party. I'll find 'Darkness' and drag them over as well. Ah, and save some time and come armed." (Tanya)

With that agreement made, Tanya nodded and left, disappeared without a trace.

* * *

**Part 3**

The next morning.

Lakyus led the five into E-Rantel's castle. Unexpectedly, the hallways were virtually deserted as they wandered around. Though the city never had nearly as many knights or maidservants in its castle as the Royal Capital, any city should have at least a fair few guards and civil servants.

The Re-Estize Kingdom was far from a meritocracy, often with copious amounts of corruption as well. Even before accounting for the concerns one might have for continuing to employ bureaucrats from a hostile kingdom, the overwhelming majority had already been weeded out and disqualified from succeeding the role.

Until such a time when the Sorcerous Kingdom's severe shortage of capable manpower could be resolved, the positions would have to continue to be filled with Elder Liches and the like, even if doing so was a gross waste of their abilities.

Undead of course had neither the need for servants to bring them food and refreshments nor to retire to their bedchambers for the night, so for the most part, foot-traffic in the corridors was a tenth of what it used to be, limited mostly to just the occasional Skeleton Warrior running around with a bundle of papers needed in another region.

However, even without knowledge of all that, seeing the transformation of the great castle was a perfect representation of E-Rantel itself. The castle was gradually becoming something ideal not for humans, but fit for undead and monsters to live and use.

Walking through those darkened hallways left an eerie impression on Blue Rose. It was quiet and solemn, but ever unnerving, as if the walls themselves had eyes following them as they made their way through to the very same conference room which had once been used by the Kingdom to plan their own strategy against the very same Sorcerous Kingdom which now made use of it as a common conference room, on the rare occasion there was a need for it.

Lakyus grabbed the handle and pulled open the heavy door, which slipped open smoothly and soundlessly.

Inside, the room was surprisingly barren of decoration, but because of that, all attention was drawn to the gigantic banner set in crimson, constructed out of a beautiful cloth and inlaid with gold, the flag of the Sorcerous Kingdom hanging down from the ceiling at one end of the room.

Similar flags hang over the walls, replacing a number of portraits which had once hung in their place. By material value alone, their worth may exceed the artwork which previously filled the room, but there existed no fools stupid enough to try stealing and trampling on the monarch these icons represented.

From the banner, her gaze sunk lower to the long rectangular table made of black ebony and onyx which consumed all light falling upon it.

And, at its head, the Dark Hero, Momon, sitting at the head of the table as if it were his own throne.

By all appearances, his majestic form clad in dark adamantite armor wasn't even slightly out of place at the pitch-black table, underneath the royal banner as if he were sitting upon his very own throne.

He stood up from his seat slowly, such that the magic caster seated by his side, Nabe, could shoot out of her own seat and be standing before him.

Momon looked over at them, and lightly nodded to acknowledge their arrival.

"Good Morning. Although work has been keeping us busy, it is a pleasure to meet you again, everybody from Blue Rose." (Momon)

"No, of course, for us as well. Despite our time in this city, we were unable to find time to meet with you again, Momon-dono, and Nabe-dono of 'Darkness'." (Lakyus)

Lakyus bowed back. Though they had spent a number of weeks in the city, there had never been a chance where both of them were free. Momon and Nabe could on occasion be found patrolling the city, sometimes alongside the Sorcerer King, but these were sporadic and lacked a regular schedule. Except for those times, he was generally impossible to reach without scheduling time far ahead of schedule, outside town due to his own workload as an adventurer.

Both returned to their seats after exchanging greetings, after which each of the members of Blue Rose found their own seats in line. Lakyus sat next to Nabe, with Gagaran by her side. Keeno rushed ahead to take the opposite seat by Momon's side, followed by Tina and Tia relaxing into the next two adjacent chairs.

"Our apologies for making you wait." (Lakyus)

"No, you're right on time, we simply happened to arrive earlier. Besides…" (Momon)

"… This is unacceptable. Regardless of the circumstances, to make Momon-saaan wait…" (Nabe)

"It's fine, Nabe. There's still a minute until the scheduled time. Without knowing when each of us would be arriving, it's hardly as though we could begin early." (Momon)

Being punctual was one of the standards necessary for a member of society, but for some reason it was always any meeting's organizer who seemed to arrive last. At very least, if she wasn't like his own bosses, who would normally join ten minutes late but still blame anybody not already waiting since five minutes before the scheduled time, all would be fine.

"… Besides…" (Momon)

He picked up a small golden pocketwatch, a magic tool of dwarven make, watching the seconds in the minute ticking away.

The second hand clicked over marking the hour, and at that exact time, she appeared in front of them as if she had been there from the start.

"… See?" (Momon)

Tanya was, after all, punctual to a fault. Her arrival on the hour then wasn't a surprise to him or Nabe, nor to Keeno who had been irritated by her abrupt appearances before to the point of giving up, but still shocked the other members present, whose instincts unexpectedly failed to give them any warning of the demon's presence.

Without minding their reaction, she glanced over and nodded, before immediately jumping to business.

"… Then, since all participating members are present, I will begin the pre-operation debriefing." (Tanya)

She threw down a large roll of parchment which unrolled itself smoothly onto the table. Filling the width of the table across and twice that length out, it was a large poster of a map, covering the surrounding countries at one end, but extending far further southwards so that the known countries were covering only a third of the paper.

On the opposite end, a number of lakes, mountains and forests were identified but unlabeled, plus a few cities without names. Finally, of the four-meter map, fully half the center was uniformly shaded and unlabeled, extending out from the southern border of the Slane Theocracy, from coast to coast.

This was the impassable southern desert which occupied the vast center of the continent.

Sections of the great desert could be individually identified, such as the expansive Dolar Desert to the far southeast, and while it wasn't without known landmarks, a complete map of its entirety simply did not exist.

"… Just where did the Sorcerous Kingdom dig up something like this…" (Keeno)

Keeno was the first to notice the meaning of this. Having been forced to cross the immense desert once before, she knew full well just how difficult it was to find a map which stretched from one border to the other.

Even a basic coastal map was nigh impossible to come up with, as spectacularly powerful sea monsters occupied that region of the shore. Tribes and cities may well exist around the few oases of the desert, but even they could sketch out the immediate surroundings at best.

So uninhabitable were the endless wastes of the desert, it was said that no living being could survive the journey from one end to the other. Indeed, it was both a perilous and tedious journey even for an undead with limitless stamina and no stomach for food or water.

From colossal scorpions and giant skeletal vultures, to the legendary sand dragons which supposedly lived buried deep beneath the dunes, not even a magic caster capable of flight could travel more than a few kilometers before being spotted and preyed upon by some beast.

It was a domain restricted to the truly powerful, the Eight Greed Kings who had once conquered its entire expanse, yet had long since lost all ownership following their demise, leaving isolated cities to either starve until annihilation, or collapse into tribal villages with no contact outside their own.

"It's just a crude map of the terrain put together from high-altitude images, stitched together with maps from each of the surrounding nations." (Tanya)

Though the maps available in the Kingdom were low-quality, a few borrowed from the Empire, combined with ones recovered from the Holy Kingdom and seized from the Theocracy, all together formed a quality picture of the northern half of the continent, even a few hundred kilometers into the desert itself.

Everything past that however had to be filled in, and essentially depicted nothing but the terrain itself. It was far from detailed to launch an expedition into the depths of the desert for the purposes of making contact with some of the desert-dwelling demihuman species, or exploring the lost, scattered ruins of the ancient civilization which had long since perished.

Fortunately, they were not planning on staying in the desert for any extended period of time. Her objectives for this mission would not require that knowledge, only an accurate measurement of the distance to be crossed.

Tanya traced the southern edge of the map, tapping the end of the desert where dunes began to turn into plains. Glancing over at Keeno, she asked,

"Unfortunately images don't give much information about the local nations or the people living in the area. You wouldn't happen to have a map of your own to add on, would you?" (Tanya)

"No… the me of that time had no thoughts of bringing anything like a map." (Keeno)

"… Well, figured. Then, the first step after crossing will be to pick out the nearest country and extort one from them. Even after a few centuries, I'm sure they can at least point somebody in the direction of an ancient country of undead." (Tanya)

_Provided it hadn't already been destroyed._

The last words were left unspoken, but there was no guarantee that the core reason for her going hadn't long since vanished. Much could change in two hundred years, after all.

"-Excuse me, but could I confirm something?" (Lakyus)

Lakyus stood up and interjected.

"What is it?" (Tanya)

"You speak of it as a settled matter, but how are you expecting to be able to cross the desert? Leaving aside the two of you, for Gagaran or Momon-dono, trekking through the great desert in heavy armor would be unreasonable." (Lakyus)

"Ah, that? There is no need to worry. To begin with, there is no need for us to set foot within the desert." (Tanya)

"… Do you intend to fly and carry us across the whole way on floating boards, or something?" (Momon)

Momon stepped in to check, but Tanya tilted her head questioningly.

"Of course not, that would take forever. It's much easier to just save time and teleport the entire distance with a single spell." (Tanya)

"""Wait a moment!"""

Three people simultaneously shot out of their seats. Momon, Keeno, and even the ever-calm Nabe jumped up at her declaration. For a moment they looked to each other as if to confirm their thoughts, before both women's eyes settled on Momon to proceed.

Noticing this, he himself paused as if to clear his throat before asking,

"… Ahem… though you say you would use teleportation magic, could a trip of this distance really be done? As I understand, even advanced teleportation magic lacks the range required to travel so far." (Momon)

As he said, teleportation magic was far from limitless. To travel the distance between E-Rantel and the capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom with ordinary 5th tier [Teleporation] would take ten jumps, minimum, even if the caster possessed skills to extend the range. Not even the more advanced 7th tier [Greater Teleportation] could do it, requiring two or three steps, with a delay in between proportional to the number of people being brought along by the caster. It would perhaps be possible with [Gate], the highest-tier of teleportation magic, but that was a spell which was supposedly a state secret of the Sorcerous Kingdom, not something to be used frivolously.

The distance Tanya was currently proposing to travel was five times that of the distance between the two cities. Furthermore, to take a party this large through a desert would mean dozens of trips back and forth, with prolonged delay in between, during which she would inevitably lose track of one group or the other. In the event they passed through a sandstorm or encountered monsters along the way, the chances of losing their direction jumped exponentially.

And yet, she made her assertion with absolute confidence.

"… You're half-right, Momon-dono. However, to be more precise, teleportation magic is, by nature, limited by the distance to a selected destination. Not, as you say, by the distance to be traveled." (Tanya)

"Is there a practical difference?" (Momon)

What she said was technically true even in YGGDRASIL, though it was just a pragmatic solution to an issue exclusive to a game, an interesting factoid more than a useful mechanic. To have a player's teleportation cancel mid-cast simply because one of their allies nudged them an extra centimeter away from the destination would cause no end of frustration, so for the sake of the game experience, the developers designed teleportation magic in that manner.

"But of course." (Tanya)

Raising one hand, a number of complex formulas filled the air.

"Teleportation magic is surprisingly simple, once you take out the useless flashy parts." (Tanya)

With a swipe of two fingers, sections of the projection vanished.

"By overlaying identical-looking parts common to [Teleportation], [Greater Teleportation], and even lower-level teleportation like [Dimensional Move], you can pick out the core formula responsible for actual teleportation…" (Tanya)

Her explanation continued, the formulas projected into the air evolving like a slideshow.

"… Those three can also be used to differentiate between individual and group teleportation…" (Tanya)

Another block of the tree-like magic was highlighted.

"… Contrast this with undirected magic like [Blink] or [Chaos Teleport], and you can decode how to select a destination, and how the selection is range-limited…" (Tanya)

More parts were removed, leaving only a few disconnected sections of the spell.

"… And, substitute your own arbitrary selection while putting it together." (Tanya)

With a quick shrug, she finished.

"See, there you have it, a spell for unrestricted teleportation. It's not quite that easy in reality, and it's honestly questionable whether this still qualifies as tier magic, but anybody can do this much with a bit of effort, really." (Tanya)

"Don't be ridiculous!" (Nabe)

Nabe slammed her fist against the table, jumping up in a rage.

"What is it, Nabe-dono? Surely this is a case where the results will speak for themselves?" (Tanya)

Depending on how those words were interpreted, Tanya may well be insulting Ainz by announcing that she had beaten him to the milestone of being able to customize magic beyond YGGDRASIL's spell modifiers.

Yet, there was nothing that the adventurer Nabe could say about this. She too understood this, and after a quick peek at Momon, she sat back, still glaring at Tanya.

"If you're in doubt, we could leave immediately. That _is_ why we're all fully equipped." (Tanya)

Tanya offered to the group. They were, unsurprisingly, reluctant to say anything in reply.

After a few seconds of silence, Lakyus spoke up with an excuse, carefully noncommittal.

"… Though we did come prepared, departing withing the next few days would be impossible, as our party member Tina still needs time to recover from her injuries." (Lakyus)

"I was wondering why she was walking around with an open wound…" (Tanya)

Lightly raising one hand towards the girl, she quickly cast some magic of her own.

Tina's chest briefly glowed gold, the internal injuries hidden under her bandages vanishing silently.

"… Unbelievable…" (Tina)

"There's no way… Divine magic, cast by a demon?" (Lakyus)

Five jaws dropped to the floor.

Of course, if you thought about it normally, the idea of demons or undead having anything to do with healing or the holy element in general would seem nonsensical. It was simply human common sense that such a thing was absurd.

Tanya thought for a bit, then started a story of her own.

"… A certain cleric is a devout believer of your kingdom's four gods. One day, he hits his head on a rock and loses all memory of the name of his god. As a joke, his friend convinces him that the cleric was a life-long believer of the Evil God of Rotten Potatoes. Now, what happens to this cleric's divine magic?" (Tanya)

"Is it philosophy now? Why?" (Keeno)

"Nothing so subjective. This is a testable, scientific claim. A _tested_ claim. What happened to such a cleric's divine magic, do you think? _Nothing._ His magic works as it always had, in the divine name of the Evil God of Rotten Potatoes. So, have we proven the existence and divinity of the Evil God of Rotten Potatoes? Or simply that divine magic has nothing to do with so-called gods?" (Tanya)

She smiled as she asked this of the increasingly pale-faced Lakyus.

"Is it so strange that a demon, or undead, or a plant could cast divine magic? By my analysis, the only extra requirement for divine magic over arcane magic, as you describe it, is the will and expectation that the magic will work. Evidently, anybody who claims otherwise is an idiot or a fraud, likely both. Don't you think so?" (Tanya)

"… What do you hope to accomplish by revealing all this?" (Keeno)

"Accomplish, you say? It almost sounds like you're accusing me of something. I am merely seeking the true nature of magic, much like you." (Tanya)

"And, if spreading this knowledge were to lead the Theocracy to splinter?" (Keeno)

"Then it is simply a fortunate coincidence. The world will learn of this in due time, I figured you two might be interested in learning of it first, as a researcher, and a priest." (Tanya)

There was no need for her to deny it, as it would soon be no secret either way. In just a few weeks, the Baharuth Empire would officially make the announcement, with Deathless Priests accompanying the heralds in every major city. The Emperor was more than happy to jump on with the idea, since it finally gave him an excuse to push forward with disbanding the churches in his country which were spying for the Theocracy, all while brandishing the name of the Sorcerous Kingdom as a shield against any criticism.

Though as for how Demiurge might get involved in making sure that information carries its full impact straight into the Theocracy, that was beyond her. Even without this, he surely had something planned out, all she was doing was adding more fuel to the fire on top of everything else.

"… That's enough. I understand what you're suggesting, but you've said too much. Let us return to the main topic." (Momon)

Momon stepped in to interrupt the argument. Though she might claim to speak common facts, what she was stating was nonetheless beyond what was to be common knowledge, seeping into the territory of secrecy. Even still, he himself wasn't sure of how much she had been allowed to reveal, and what part might be her overstepping. He carefully tried to steer the conversation back on track.

"… My apologies, Momon-dono. Well, since you insist, we can prepare to travel immediately. Or, is there still something?" (Tanya)

"I don't mind. So long as the Sorcerer King is held to his word, I would prefer to leave and be done with this as quickly as possible. Hamsuke is already being taken care of, we have already settled all other matters. There is no need to waste any more time." (Momon)

"Very good. And to the five of you? We were supposed to go on an adventure to your princess's home country, are you ready?" (Tanya)

"Fine, I'm ready any time… though speaking of identities, I will return to being Evileye, for the time being. I doubt anybody remains who remembers my name or appearance, but best to be prudent." (Keeno)

"That's right, there are species in this world with far longer lifespans than those of humans… well, I'll be doing the same, else we'd get attacked every time we approach a city gate." (Tanya)

She reapplied the disguise and switched appearances in the blink of an eye.

Slowly, she balled her hand into a small fist, then opened it. Since her outfit included long gloves, socks, and even a collar made of the mysterious indestructible white silk, there wasn't much visible skin to recolor into something less pale and more human-looking.

They had previously confirmed that spells and skills for detecting or seeing through illusions wouldn't help break hers. It wasn't the product of a tier magic spell, after all, just light and optics. A mage's decoy wasn't something which could be distinguished from ordinary light using tier magic. In fact, even a World-Class Item shouldn't be able to dispel it, since an effect from one targeted at her should be negated. If such a method existed, it would have to be a Talent, or something entirely unknown to them.

And, just yesterday she had confirmed that even an acquaintance would be adequately fooled by her appearance.

"The rest of you are probably fine as you are, unless you want to dress up or something." (Tanya)

Though they had no knowledge of what sort of races might be inhabiting the area, she considered it unlikely that undead or demons would be welcomed in any human-populated city, with the exception of cases such as the current Kingdom or Empire, where the Sorcerous Kingdom would force them to do so. But even in those countries, her walking through the streets would be enough for every other house to shut their doors and hide.

"She looks like Nabe-san… or is it the Guardian Overseer Albedo-sama, only smaller?" (Tia)

Black hair was rare in the area, so there were only so many other people her image could be based off of. For an outsider to see her, it wouldn't be unlikely for somebody to assume that Momon and Nabe really were affiliated with the Sorcerous Kingdom.

"Hey… Just to check, didn't you used to have a tail or something?" (Gagaran)

"Ah…" (Tia)

"Now that you mention it…" (Tina)

"… I'd completely forgotten about it… was there a spell for shapeshifting like that?" (Momon)

Momon brought one hand to his chin, thinking of what spells could be used for that. Most methods for transformation were instead based on class skills, such as Demiurge's 'Shapeshifter' and 'Chaos' jobs, or Doppelgangers like Pandora's Actor. Was there magic which could achieve the same result in this new world?

"No, nothing so complicated. Instead of wasting mana on permanent invisibility, it's faster and easier to just cut it off and be done." (Tanya)

"… Hah?" (Momon)

Tanya tilted her head in confusion.

"I mean, isn't it obvious? Even recasting invisibility magic continuously for just half an hour already consumes more magic than just healing it back off once." (Tanya)

As if to prove her point, she cast some more healing magic, glowing briefly with green light, which coalesced back into a bladed tail.

"… See? Better this way for a disguise." (Tanya)

And, reaching underneath to the base of her own back, she cut across with some more magic, letting the bloody end fall to the floor, where it quickly began to erode into black dust.

"… No, that… doesn't it hurt?" (Momon)

"Pain may be a useful sense for humans, but when the vital parts of your body no longer match up with the nerves, it just becomes a hindrance in combat, don't you think so? … Well, we've gotten off-topic again." (Tanya)

She sighed again.

"… We've wasted enough time for these diversions, there will be plenty of time to mess around while traveling. Food and water have been provisioned for you. We will provide precious metals and gemstones to use in case the local currency isn't used. Unless you have anything else to say, I will begin the teleportation process immediately." (Tanya)

"… Aren't you rushing too much?" (Keeno)

"The world waits for nobody. Without a concrete definition of exactly how much time we have, to finish what we set out to do, let us not waste any more time than we have to." (Tanya)

Tanya drew up enough formulas to fill half the room. For a spell which took as much precision as this, it would be more reliable to leave them visible than to hide them while casting. Though not quite as complex as Super-tier magic, this was her attempt at fully executing teleportation on her own, instead of just triggering some tier magic to do it for her.

"With this distance, I'll bring two people along at a time, to keep it stable. Any volunteers?" (Tanya)

"Then, we'll scout ahead." (Tia)

The twin assassins stood up, nodded to each other and walked around the table to Tanya, who nodded back.

"… Calculating spatial coordinates to destination, heading 184.5 degrees, distance 18,267,716, adjust curvature minus 3,743,668, elevation shift plus 346. Prepare for distortion. Transport in T-minus 3… 2… 1…" (Tanya)

And then the room returned to silence with the three of them vanishing into thin air.

"… No matter how many times you see it, it's strange." (Momon)

"That teleportation, it's not tier magic anymore. I've seen it just once before, one of the Platinum Dragon Lord's skills." (Keeno)

"… Hoh? That's something I'd like to learn about. What sort of skill is it?" (Momon)

"I'm sorry, Momon-sama, I'm not sure about the details… Back then, he could appear and disappear without warning just like that, but he never explained it in more detail. If I had to guess, the granny might know more, but it's hard to say." (Keeno)

"I see… well, that's fine…" (Momon)

Great as it would be to get some information out of somebody who had experienced those skills first-hand, not even she seemed to have much information about the Dragon Lords or their abilities.

"… If possible, I'd like a chance to meet with…" (Momon)

"-Excuse me…" (Tanya)

Tanya reappeared in the same spot she had left from a minute after, interrupting the discussion between Momon and Keeno. As soon as they noticed her, Keeno paused what she was saying and sat back down.

"… The first trip was a bit off-target, so I left a beacon. I'll need to recalibrate the destination, don't mind me and continue." (Tanya)

Since she had forcibly replaced the target designation from [Greater Teleportation] with her own spatial coordinates, there was no correction from the system to anything she were to put in. With the distance being so great, failing to account for topographical differences or the weather to even a tenth of a percent of difference would throw the endpoint off by several kilometers.

In that sense, it was fortunate that they weren't thrown deep underground – though she was dropped out in the middle of the sky and forced to catch the twins as soon as they came out.

"… Ahem, Keeno-san, about what we were discussing…" (Momon)

"Could it wait until another time?" (Keeno)

"Ah, right, okay." (Momon)

The room descended back into an awkward silence, with nobody wanting to say too much.

Evidently, there were still things she would be willing to reveal only to him, not to the Sorcerous Kingdom, but that was one of the reasons he was here.

Momon's thoughts drifted to his days at work, sitting through teleconferences, listening to his coworkers complaining about their bosses, before rhythmically silencing themselves the moment said boss connected. And, even that boss would usually start complaining about their own director until they too finally joined and the meeting could start, twenty minutes later than scheduled.

In the end, the meeting would just end with the highest director who actually bothered to attend reading out some unrelated nonsense about how they should all be working harder and dictate some outdated instructions about a project nobody there was working on.

Rather than letting the silence continued to drag on, he thought to change the subject and ask something he had been meaning to bring up ever since he first saw the disguise.

"… Ahem… Tanya-dono, if you will be disguising yourself as an adventurer, is it alright for you to use the same name? Shouldn't you also use a pseudonym, like we- like Evileye-san?" (Momon)

"There's no other way, is there?" (Keeno)

"No, that won't be a problem, I have already taken care of it." (Tanya)

If there was one obvious flaw to the disguise, it was that her name remained unchanged. Experiments had demonstrated how demons were bound to their name, and Demiurge had confirmed the idea. Exact consequences varied, but at the very least, a summoned demon would be recalled, while one already manifested in the world and bound to the world would cripple their astral body, or soul, in attempting to do so.

Excepting cases where they somehow came into possession of two names, it was an absolute restriction. Tanya's own memory failed her on that, or rather, that set of memories had somehow been deleted from her being. She should have had another name, _his_ name, but it had vanished from her mind.

Of course, as far as she was concerned, rules always had loopholes, and finding those had been a talent of hers even before becoming a demon supposedly specialized in the subject. A demon's name was, theoretically, that by which they were known at the moment they came into existence. Were one to have two prior to conception, retaining both was possible.

For instance, she had already confirmed that regardless of whether she included the 'von' in her name or gave her original full title as 'Battalion Commander Major Tanya Von Degurechaff of the Imperial 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion', she did not feel any repercussions, despite the name no longer being accurate to her.

Though she hadn't actually performed any experiments where she would expect failure, the rules for what qualified as an acceptable name were evidently fairly fluid.

This logic led to a theory, which she decided to test herself, at risk of stunning herself into several weeks' recuperation and against Demiurge's advice and warnings. She had, after all, been named once and Named again afterwards… or so she had reasoned.

Tanya pulled off the tag and tossed it onto the table.

"I forgot to mention it before. If you really need to, it's fine to refer to me as 'Hakugin' (White Silver). I've already had it registered as that in the official registration." (Tanya)

There wasn't any harm to revealing this, given how much of an oddity she must already be in the eyes of Blue Rose. It was just another minor irregularity.

Ainz had previously mentioned that he himself had never heard of the law before Demiurge mentioned it in passing. Certainly, it had never existed within YGGDRASIL, but neither was it exclusive to this new world, since Demiurge understood it instinctively.

Then, what would happen if Ulbert were still in this world? Would he automatically gain knowledge of that law in the way Ainz understood how to sense his own magic, or would he be protected from it just as any Player was within YGGDRASIL? There was no way to tell now, but it should at least be reasonable to assume there existed other exceptions than Tanya's own moniker.

To begin with, the very idea of performing experiments on summoned demons or angels was something that would never occur to normal people. The likes of Evileye who would have both the means and hobby of attempting such a test would inevitably be incredibly rare, and even somebody with specialized knowledge couldn't necessarily say whether the same rules applied to common low-ranked demons and an archfiend worthy of the name 'Demon Emperor'.

As such, neither Nabe nor Momon were particularly perturbed by hearing this, the former nodding along with disinterest, the latter accepting it without much thought. Or rather, his complaints were of an entirely different nature.

"It's 'white' and 'silver', but you made your eyes and hair, belt, knife, and scabbard all completely black… I can see the white, but where's the silver, is it false advertising? Does the design conflict too much?" (Momon)

"Silver rusts black. Isn't it fine, then?" (Tanya)

"… The name fits the person, then, 'Rusted Silver'. Understood." (Nabe)

"An interesting observation, 'Beautiful Princess' Nabe-dono, the names people do think up… From whom did you happen to hear that?" (Tanya)

"Obviously, an inferior lifeform (First Lieutenant Warren Grantz) mentioned it under the condition of anonymity." (Nabe)

"I see, an anonymous inferior lifeform (First Lieutenant Warren Grantz). I'll be sure to remember that. Thank you." (Tanya)

"Glad to be of assistance." (Nabe)

The two exchanged an out-of-place polite greeting, disproportionately so for the woman famous for her scornful gazes and cruel remarks.

"… Although, that's an issue for the distant future. Let's get going already, we're running out of time." (Tanya)

Without waiting for confirmation, she grabbed two others and disappeared with them. Some time later, she came back again, but with only three people left in the room besides herself, there wasn't much left in the way of conversation.

After a minute of re-confirming her calculations, she took the last Blue Rose still present and vanished. Any pending questions were deferred until some other time.

When she next returned, only Momon and Nabe – Ainz and Narberal remained in the meeting room.

"Then, lastly…" (Tanya)

"… Ainz-sama, won't you please reconsider? The risk of traveling so far from Nazarick is incomparable to E-Rantel or the Holy Kingdom. How is your army to perish in your service if they are too far away to sacrifice themselves on your behalf? Is this not precisely the role Pandora's Actor-sama exists to fill?" (Narberal)

"Narberal… there is still much to do here, I would hate to away the actors Demiurge's plans require. Pandora's Actor still has many roles to fill, there is nothing in the immediate future which would demand my direct attention." (Ainz)

"What task could possibly be as important as protecting the Supreme One!? When you went to conquer the Dwarven Kingdom, it was with Aura-sama and Shalltear-sama, as well as the Hanzos and soldiers accompanying you. Without our yet knowing who we will have to exterminate, won't you at least bring along that much?" (Narberal)

From the sound of it, the two had been on the subject for the entire time Tanya had been away.

Or rather, they had clearly been on it many times before, and this was just the latest attempt.

Tanya leaned back against a wall and let the argument continue. Though Ainz was likely wishing to keep as few members in the party as possible to be able to relax and take a break for a while, she was personally of a similar opinion to Narberal – though having more guards may not strictly be necessary, more force was always welcome, when it came to reconnaissance in force.

"Isn't it fine? I'm sure Demiurge-sama would be more than happy to free some of them up if you only asked." (Tanya)

"Hm?" (Ainz)

Ainz paused at her unexpected betrayal.

"That's right, if only the rest of the Pleiades, surely…" (Narberal)

"It wouldn't be hard to justify, just say I brought along some of Jaldabaoth's maids for myself as adjutants." (Tanya)

Ainz slowly shook his head.

"… I'm afraid we cannot do that. My reasons for creating Momon were deep and profound, but he is not all-powerful. The same character which saved us the effort of crushing E-Rantel and destroying the Kingdom could not do the same for other countries which remain." (Ainz)

"As expected of the Supreme One. However-" (Narberal)

"How does this translate to bringing along the Pleiades? There are several reasons, but… right, the relationship between the Sorcerous Kingdom and you, the adventurer, is vital. There is an important distinction between merely doing work for the Sorcerer King, and being able to call upon his maids." (Ainz)

"I see… would you please be so kind as to reveal to us, why then we already allowed the secret to be revealed to those other women?" (Narberal)

"No, that's unlikely. Since Momon is keeping the identity a secret, they will as well. His trust gives credibility to the claim. Probably." (Tanya)

"Ah." (Narberal)

"… It's impossible to be certain, but broadly speaking, you are correct… Besides that… well, it is not something immediately important. Continue to think about for the time being. If you still have not figured it out when next you return, ask Demiurge for the answer. He will have figured it out, I am sure." (Ainz)

"I am in awe of your profound wisdom, Ainz-sama." (Narberal)

"… I'll be sure to do so at the first opportunity." (Tanya)

Narberal answered with a deep bow, while Tanya did so only reluctantly.

"Ahem… so, there you have it. Inviting more guardians, or the Pleiades, or even finding time to meet with stealth operatives would create needless suspicion, it would be far too short-sighted." (Ainz)

"I understand. My sincerest apologies for wasting your time with such a foolish question." (Narberal)

"Umu. Well, with that settled, let us not make them wait any longer." (Ainz)

"Then, by your leave, I will transfer us immediately." (Tanya)

With just those last words, the three impostor adventurers vanished as well, finally leaving the former audience room vacant of its master and subjects.

* * *

**Part 4**

Albedo laid sprawled on her back, black wings spread out listlessly across the enormous bed.

She let out a prolonged sign as she slowly rolled over, sinking her head into the pillows.

Though her master lacked skin, metabolism, or any number of biological functions which might cause a living being to leave behind a scent, when she breathed in deeply, she felt that she could still smell when he had last laid upon the same bed.

Even as she heard the door into the bedroom slide open, she didn't get up, only glancing over to see who was intruding on her, before quickly sinking back into the soft mattress.

"… What is it, Demiurge?" (Albedo)

Her half-muffled voice called out from the pillow.

"Albedo, although I don't mind covering for you for a day, all of Nazarick will be troubled if their Guardian Overseer were to suddenly seclude herself or run off somewhere." (Demiurge)

"… Would they really, now? Didn't Momonga-sama leave me behind because I was of no use?" (Albedo)

Demiurge frowned back.

"… I would dare say Tabula Smaragdina-sama didn't create you to be so easily depressed. Isn't the fact that Ainz-sama went so far as to engrave his own touch onto your being itself proof of his affection?" (Demiurge)

Albedo rolled back over and sat onto the side of the bed, which was littered with black feathers from her day on it. These beautiful jet-black feathers could be priceless treasures in the outside world, but here they weren't even an afterthought for the two Guardians.

"… I know that. So why would he leave us behind?" (Albedo)

"Surely you jest. No matter how distraught you may be, there would never be a need for you of all people to ask me something so blatantly obvious." (Demiurge)

"If he were here, Ainz-sama would tell us that it's to create a character for that girl you picked up to act as another arbiter of law for conquered cities… my intuition as his wife tells me that. Of course, that's only a mental exercise to keep the two of us from growing complacent." (Albedo)

"Our meager intelligence only amounts to so much, that is why he teaches us as he does." (Demiurge)

"Obviously. Another governor would go far in aiding Nazarick, but that is only a surface motivation. Besides that, I'm sure they really will be opening trade and diplomatic relations, though that too is only an afterthought, nothing which Ainz-sama would have to step out to handle personally." (Albedo)

"That's right. Although they are certain to accomplish a great many extraordinary things, his true motive would never be so short-sighted." (Demiurge)

"I know, it's no secret. With how many times he has tried to teach us to be independent, any fool would see it. It's just… why would he, if not to one day abandon us when we can no longer satisfy him?" (Albedo)

Demiurge quietly shrugged and shook his head while smiling.

"Please, you should get some rest. Have you forgotten to consider the reason Ainz-sama was expressing so much interest in the cultural practices of humans? Why he performs tests while removing individual Guardians and members of Nazarick alongside himself? We know for a fact that it isn't as though he would do something like skip out on work, so put it together, for what reason might he expect to be away from his own Great Underground Tomb with another for an extended period of time?" (Demiurge)

Albedo's golden eyes lit up in realization even before he finished, her delight growing with every word that followed.

"… -A honeymoon." (Albedo)

And Demiurge met her gaze and smile.

"… Or related matters. Just think… When first he went out to Carne Village, it was alongside yourself, Albedo, the one time you were free of work, for he knew you would soon be busy. Next it was E-Rantel with Narberal, the Dwarven Kingdom with Aura and Shalltear, the Holy Kingdom with CZ… and now the far south, with Tanya as well… do you believe it was a coincidence that each and every time, he brought along another of his female servants or Guardians?" (Demiurge)

"Demiurge, I wish to sincerely apologize for my foolishness. And, thank you, for reminding me of the obvious. Each and every choice he makes is brought forth with limitless layers of foresight, and shapes the future of Nazarick and this world to his will." (Albedo)

"… And it is our duty as his Guardians to discover and implement his will from the cursory fragments he deigns to reveal to us." (Demiurge)

The two had met a perfect mutual understanding. There was no further room for mistakes or hesitation in their future.

"… All of Nazarick belongs to you, as the entire world will all be yours, Ainz-sama." (Albedo)

"Then we must make use of the months he has promised us. The gears, he has already set in motion, the seeds planted, now all we have left to do is to reap the harvest in his name." (Demiruge)

"Yes. The Republic is already promised to be his prey, but before his return, the Empire, Kingdom, Theocracy, Holy Kingdom, Draconic Kingdom, and the demi-human countries… all of these, at very least, must definitively be brought under the veil of the Sorcerous Kingdom." (Albedo)

"… Then so it shall be." (Demiurge)

* * *

Discord for random discussion, complaining, and pointing out errors: WZr7tET


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